[f. the vb.]
The phrase in a sniff ‘in a moment’ occurs slightly earlier in dial.: see the Eng. Dial. Dict.
1. An act of sniffing; a single inhalation through the nose in order to smell something, usually accompanied by a characteristic short snuffling sound; the sound made in doing this.
1767. Warton, Oxford Newsman’s V., 34. Oh, cou’d I but have had one single sup, One single sniff at Charlotte’s caudle-cup!
1798. O’Keeffe, Wild Oats, II. i. Rain over—quite fine—I’ll take a sniff of the open air too.
1833. T. Hook, Parson’s Dau., II. i. Then he made a sort of a sniff with his nose, because he could smell the dinner.
1868. H. Spencer, Princ. Psychol., I. vi. (ed. 2), I. 109. When the sniffs have been continued for some time, scarcely any scent can be perceived.
1883. F. M. Crawford, Dr. Claudius, i. [He] was taking his evening sniff of the Neckar breeze.
transf. 1856. Mayne Reid, Hunters’ Feast, vi. 58. It was a sort of prolonged hiss, that all except Ike believed to be the snort of the black bear. Ike, however, declared that it was not the bear, but the ‘sniff,’ as he termed it, of the ‘painter’ (cougar).
b. A smell or scent.
1844. Hood, The Turtles, 34. All whiffs, and sniffs, and puffs and snuffs,… That, as we walk upon the river’s ridge, Assault the nose.
c. Sniffing distance.
1878. Stevenson, Inland Voy., xx. 216. We were within sniff of Paris, it seemed.
2. An act of sniffing in order to express or show contempt, disdain, incredulity, or similar feeling.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II. III. iii. Lambeth … is met … by nothing but Royalist brocards; sniffs, huffs, and open insults.
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xli. Miss Miggs gave a great sniff to the same effect.
1884. Manch. Exam., 19 Dec., 5/2. A look and a sniff which express as clearly as articulate words a homely rejoinder [etc.].
1891. ‘J. S. Winter,’ Lumley, xii. ‘She is downstairs, and I think she’s come to stop,’ with a sniff of disgust.
3. An act (or habit) of clearing the nose by a short inhalation.
1860. All Year Round, No. 75. 588. An elderly woman labouring under a chronic sniff.
1883. H. Drummond, in G. A. Smith, Life (1899), viii. 188. The creature … gives vent to a tremendous sniff, as if he had just caught a severe cold in the head.
4. U.S. A contemptible or insignificant person.
1890. Gunter, Miss Nobody, xii. 124. Her mother … cries out, astounded: ‘Going to marry that little sniff?’
