snipe hunt
1
9.9
- noun
- /snaɪp hʌnt/
- Informal
:
búsqueda del snipe
- After hours of searching for the non-existent creature, I realized it was just a snipe hunt.
Examples
-
The teacher sent the new student on a snipe hunt to teach him about practical jokes.
-
This is a snipe hunt.
-
They were all laughing after they realized that the snipe hunt was just a prank.
Synonyms
22
6.6
A hopeless search for something that does not exist
How Pointless
Surface Forms
Morphology
snipe + hunt
Although the phrase is literally built from 'snipe' (a bird) and 'hunt' (a search), the idiomatic meaning 'a practical joke or pointless errand' is culturally specific and not predictable from the constituent meanings. A B1 learner who knows the words would most likely interpret it as a literal hunt for a bird and would not reliably infer the prank sense without prior exposure.
Etymology
The phrase snipe hunt comes from an old camping trick. People would send a new camper into the woods to look for a made-up bird called snipe, giving silly instructions so the person waited alone and could not find anything. That's why snipe hunt now means 'a pointless or trick search'.