[-NESS.] The quality of being stuffy.
† 1. Thickness or closeness of texture. Obs.
1611. Cotgr., Corps … (in cloth, or stuffe) substance, tacke, stuffinesse.
2. The condition of being close or ill-ventilated.
1859. W. H. Gregory, Egypt, II. 164. The smallness of the bedrooms, which we should consider conducive to much stuffiness.
1908. R. Bagot, A. Cuthbert, vii. 65. Passengers who, like himself, preferred the fresh air on deck to the stuffiness of the saloon.
3. The state or sensation of stoppage and obstruction in the throat or nose.
1862. Geo. Eliot, in Cross, Life, II. xii. 279. As soon as one [cold] has departed with the usual final stage of stuffiness.
1884. M. Mackenzie, Dis. Throat & Nose, II. 313. The patient almost always experiences a feeling of ‘stuffiness’ in the nose.
1898. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 289. A more or less general disagreeable stuffiness of the respiratory tract.
