Obs. [ad. L. sufflātio, -ōnem, n. of action f. sufflāre (see prec.).] The action of blowing (up); inflation (lit. and fig.); distension with wind; inspiration (by the ‘breath’ of the Holy Ghost); expiration.
1599. A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physicke, 121/2. When anye mans Bellye with sufflationes is straygned.
1631. R. H., Arraignm. Whole Creature, xi. § 2. 102. As the wandring Starres in their motions, yea as the Windes in their sufflations.
1660. R. Burney, Κέρδ. Δῶρον (1661), 65. There is no other Canker to Nobility and Gentry but sufflation.
1663. Waterhouse, Fortescue’s De Laud. Legum Angliæ, 396. If any of them act above the sphear of vulgarity, ’tis by the sufflation of a miracle.
1778. [W. H. Marshall], Minutes Agric., 27 Feb. 1776. It seems fully proved, that salt and water will cure a sufflation.
1797. Geddes, Transl. Bible, II. Pref. p. v. The admission … of a perpetual and unerring sufflation … destroys their [viz. the Scriptures] credibility throughout.
1800. T. Green, Diary Lover of Lit. (1810), 233. Discanting largely on the consequences of such a sufflation [viz. the explosion of gunpowder by the contending armies on the continent].
1817. Coleridge, Lay Serm., II. (1852), 145. With strange sufflations he exorcised me.
