Forms: 4–5 snyff, 6 sniffe, 8– sniff. [Imitative: cf. SNIFFLE v. and SNUFF v.]
1. intr. To draw air through the nose with short or sharp audible inhalations; to clear the nose in this way, esp. when under the influence of emotion.
c. 1340. Nominale (Skeat), 88. Man snyffyth and snyuelith.
c. 1400. Beryn, 39. She snyffith, sighith, and shooke hire hede, and made rouful chere.
c. 1460. J. Russell, Bk. Nurture, 284. Pike not youre nose…, Snyff nor snitynge hyt to lowd lest youre souerayne hit here.
1575. Turberv., Faulconrie, 231. It shall be good … to skowre the head alone, and purge it with some deuise, to force hir snyte and sniffe as men do accustome to sneze. Ibid., 232. To discerne this disease of the head, the hawke will sniffe often.
1839. Dickens, Nickleby, iv. The little boy beyond alternately sniffing and choking, gave no further vent to his emotions.
1885. Manch. Exam., 9 May, 6/2. The ladies were all weeping wildly,… dozens of men were sniffing suspiciously.
2. To do this in smelling; to smell with a sniff or sniffs. Said esp. of animals.
1788. Cowper, Death of Mrs. Throckmorton’s Bulfinch, 40. He [sc. a cat] … something in the wind Conjectur’d, sniffing round and round.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, lv. Some dogs … that sniffed upon the road.
1874. C. Keene, Lett., in Life (1892), vii. 160. [A] little animal, always sniffing about for mice.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 341. The patient in smelling sniffed with one nostril only.
fig. 1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., III. xiv. If he came sneaking and sniffing about the property.
b. Const. at.
1792. Mme. D’Arblay, Diary, 27 June. She … sniffed at her flowers with a sort of ecstatic eagerness.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple (1863), 239. After sniffing at it two or three times, I knew it to be otto of roses.
1865. Tylor, Early Hist. Man., iii. 45. The Fijians, who used to salute by smelling or sniffing at one another.
1883. Olive Schreiner, Story Afr. Farm, I. i. A curious old ewe came to sniff at him.
3. To show or express contempt, disdain, disparagement, incredulity, or similar feeling, by sniffing:
a. Const. at a person or thing.
1729. Swift, Grand Question, Wks. 1755, IV. I. 109. So then you look’d scornful, and snift at the dean.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. VI. iv. Camille Desmoulins, and others, sniffing at him for it. Ibid. (1864), Fredk. Gt., XVI. x. (1872), VI. 262. Our Shopkeepers of the Rue St. Honoré would sniff at such a lodging.
1888. Times, 6 July, 9/3. Superior persons on the Gladstonian side will doubtless sniff at the expression of opinion upon these topics by the House of Lords.
b. Without const.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. VI. ii. Dusky D’Espréménil does nothing but sniff and ejaculate.
1871. Mrs. Whitney, Real Folks, xvii. She did not sniff; she was a great deal too much a lady.
1881. Besant & Rice, Chapl. of Fleet, I. 91. Mrs. Gambitt sniffed disdainfully.
4. trans. To take up, draw in, (air, etc.) by inhaling through the nostrils.
1796. Mme. D’Arblay, Camilla, I. 147. Seeing he was sniffing up the eau suave without looking at her.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), III. 189. Cold water may be sniffed up the nostrils.
1828. Lady Granville, Lett., 29 July (1894), II. 29. I sniffed up country air, and felt better and better every mile.
1873. Agnes Matheson, in Mem. Minister’s Wife (1881), vii. 98. I can sit and sniff in the sea-breezes.
b. Without adv.
1843. Sir C. Scudamore, Med. Visit Gräfenberg, 75. Head-bath twice a day; and to sniff water freely several times in the day.
1856. Kane, Arctic Explor., II. xiii. 138. Dr. Hayes … came aft and crawled upon deck to sniff the daylight.
1870. R. Brough, M. Lynch, x. [He] could sniff the sea breeze through the counting-house window.
c. fig. or in fig. context.
1864. Dk. Manchester, Court & Soc. Eliz. to Anne, I. vii. 106. Sniffing a far-off scent of battle with the restless craving of the war-horse.
1881. Besant & Rice, Chapl. Fleet, II. x. His turn-up nose seemed so joyfully to sniff the incense of praise.
5. a. To smell (a thing).
a. 1845. Hood, Town & Country, v. For meadow-buds I get a whiff of Cheshire cheese,—or only sniff The turtle made at Cuff’s.
1871. B. Taylor, Faust, I. iii. (1875), II. 28. The platter-licker, He sniffs the roasting.
b. fig. To perceive as if by smell; to smell or smell out (a plot, etc.); to suspect.
1864. C. Knight, Passages Work. Life, I. iii. 175. Lord Sidmouth, as was his wont, had sniffed a plot from afar.
1873. C. M. Davies, Unorth. London (1876), 43. It is not only Rome that sniffs heresy in independent thought or action.
1899. C. Scott, Drama of Yesterday, I. xvi. 538. I sniffed more prey.
6. To regard (something) with contempt or scorn; to sneer at.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II. V. viii. Thus some, with upturned nose, will altogether sniff and disdain Sansculottism.
7. To utter with a (scornful) sniff; to express by means of a sniff.
1859. G. Meredith, R. Feverel, III. v. 151. ‘Are you cold?’ she would ask, smiling charitably.
‘I am,’ said the mignonne, as if to excuse her conduct, which was still evident to the decorous bosom, though more removed therefrom.
‘You always appear to be,’ the bosom sniffed and snapped.
1865. Alex. Smith, Summer in Skye, I. 24. Fastidious Edinburgh sniffs disdain, and sneers reputations away.
1870. Mrs. Riddell, Austin Friars, I. iv. 89. ‘O, of course you would forgive anything from her,’ sniffed Melinda.
Hence Sniffer, one who sniffs (lit. and fig.).
1864. Realm, 1 June, 8. Sniffer and snorter.
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 30 Jan., 3/3. Those who are deaf and those who are sniffers.
