Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (mainly US, also snipe out) usu. of a cigarette end, to pick up, to pilfer, to filch.

1909		Truth (Perth) 2 Jan. 4/8: Don’t think as I’ve been a snipin / No sir, it are on the square! / I ain't got no tools upon me, / Blime you can search me close’.
1923		J. Manchon Le Slang.
1932		(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 82: He sniped a butt from the street.
1935		N. Algren Somebody in Boots 354: Sick kids [...] sniped tinfoil out of gutters.
1936		J.T. Farrell World I Never Made 480: When I snipe butts, I snipe good ones.
1945		H.B. Darrach Jr. ‘Sticktown Nocturne’ in Baltimore Sun (MD) 12 Aug. A-1/1: He [...] had even been forced to ‘snipe’ for butts.
1958		W. Talsman Gaudy Image (1966) 64: O, we’ll save. Snipe out a drink here and a cigarette there.
1966		F. Elli Riot (1967) 187: Everyone’s snipin’ butts.
1967		(con. 1940s) M. Dibner Admiral (1968) 47: You were a lousy little roughneck sniping butts on Baltimore’s south side.

2. to prospect for gold in old diggings.

1909

R. Service ‘Clancy of the Mounted Police’ Ballads of Cheechako 122: I panned and I panned in the shiny sand, and I sniped on the river bar; But I know, I know, that it’s down below that the golden treasures are.

3. (Aus. prison) to request a loan.

1984		B. Ellem Doing Time 197: snipe: to ask someone for a loan.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Snipe. To ask for a loan.