Idiom
snipe hunt
Meaning
A prank in which a gullible victim is sent off on a fruitless search for a nonexistent item.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“The campers sent the new kid on a silly snipe hunt.”
“We realized it was a snipe hunt when we spent hours looking for an animal that does not exist.”
“The senior staff orchestrated an elaborate snipe hunt, sending the unsuspecting intern into the woods to capture a creature that was merely a figment of their imagination.”
Examples
simple
“The campers sent the new kid on a silly snipe hunt.”
contextual
“We realized it was a snipe hunt when we spent hours looking for an animal that does not exist.”
complex
“The senior staff orchestrated an elaborate snipe hunt, sending the unsuspecting intern into the woods to capture a creature that was merely a figment of their imagination.”
Origin
From *snipe* + *hunt*. Although snipe exist as a family of birds, the term describes a quest for an imaginary creature of varying description.
Key words
Related idioms
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