▪ I. snifter, n. Chiefly Sc. and north. dial.
(ˈsnɪftə(r))
[f. the vb.
Various other dial. senses are recorded in the Eng. Dial. Dict. and Jamieson's Sc. Dict.]
1. A strong or rough breeze or wind.
| 1789 [see sniffler 1]. 1866– in northern dial. glossaries. 1886 B. Harte Snowbound 121 This is no blizzard, but a regular two-days' snifter. 1897 F. T. Bullen Cruise ‘Cachalot’ 350 There came a ‘snifter’ from the hills that caught her unprepared, making her reel again. |
2. pl. A bad cold in the head, or the stoppage of the nostrils caused by this; the snuffles. Also, a disease of poultry (see quot. 1844). Sc.
| 1808 Jamieson, Snifters, a stoppage of the nostrils from cold, which occasions frequent sniffing. 1828 Moir Mansie Wauch xvii, I asked him..about..curing the sturdie, and the snifters. 1837 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. I. 71 The blessedness of having a head clear of snifters. 1844 H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 260 The only disease [among fowls] I can remember to have seen in winter is what is vulgarly called the snifters, that is, a discharge of matter from the nose, which causes a noise in the nose like stifled breathing. |
3. A sniff. Chiefly dial.
| a 1835 Hogg Good Man Alloa xxxiii. Poems (1865) 309 The palfrey dash'd o'er the bounding wave, with snifter and with stenne. 1866– in Sc., Yks., Lancs. dial. glossaries and texts (Eng. Dial. Dict.). 1884 Good Words May 324/2 With a snifter of the nostrils he emits a dry, respiratory sound. |
4. A (small) quantity of intoxicating liquor, a drink, a ‘nip’. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
See note, sense 5 below.
| 1844 Spirit of Times 20 Apr. 86/2 He swallowed a cool ‘snifter’ at the nearest cabaret. 1910 G. B. McCutcheon Rose in Ring v. 90 You need a snifter of brandy... Joey handed her a drink from his flask. 1924 Wodehouse Ukridge iii. 56 And now, old horse, you may lead me across the street to the Coal Hole for a short snifter. 1934 Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Dec. 41/1 The postboy brought George a telegram, and..on opening it George smiled and shouted snifters all round. 1942 E. Paul Narrow St. xxvii. 246, I..was on the point of suggesting that he step across to the Café St. Michel for a snifter. 1963 B. Pearson Coal Flat i. 14 Do you want a drink—or would you rather have a bit of a snifter with the boys? 1978 R. V. Jones Most Secret War vii. 59 What happened was that he had taken it from his own station to another for a lunch which was preceded, and doubtless followed, by a surfeit of what he termed ‘lightning snifters’. |
5. A glass with a wide body narrowing towards the top, used for brandy, etc. orig. and chiefly U.S.
The sense ‘the contents of a snifter’ is usu. indistinguishable from sense 4 above and may be represented in some examples there.
| 1937 G. Frankau More of Us xvi. 170 And sought that other room to drain a snifter With Herr Staatsschauspielhausmeister Kohn-Goering. 1943 D. Baker Trio 155 She was sitting beside me holding a brandy snifter. 1970 J. Hansen Fadeout i. 4 A bottle of brandy warmed on the hearth... She poured splashes from it into two small snifters. 1978 G. Vidal Kalki x. iii. 241, I drank brandy from a huge Baccarat snifter. |
6. a. U.S. slang. A cocaine addict. Cf. sniffer 1 b.
| 1925 Flynn's 4 Apr. 819/2 Snifter, a cocaine fiend. 1929 Detective Fiction Weekly 27 Apr. 31/2 A certain cocaine addict, known as Snifter Selton. 1955 Amer. Speech XXX. 85 Snifter, an addict who inhales cocaine. |
b. slang (orig. U.S.). A small quantity of cocaine inhaled through the nose.
| 1930 Detective Fiction Weekly 5 July 357/1 Well, boys, take me down [to the police station]. Just one snifter of snow and I'm with you. 1934 ‘D. Hume’ Too Dangerous to Live viii. 85 He's been doping for a few months—cocaine. When he was picked up he hadn't had a snifter for nearly twenty-four hours. 1974 J. Wainwright Evidence I shall Give xxi. 99 A snifter when the pain's bad... It ain't for kicks. You're no junkie. |
7. U.S. slang. A portable radio direction-finder. Cf. sniffer 3 a.
| 1944 Sci. News Let. 12 Aug. 103 ‘The snifter’..is a portable, one-man direction finder that ‘smells out’ by radio the very room in which an illegal radio transmitter is hidden. 1949 Life 5 Dec. 166/2 At the start hunters with radio direction finders, called ‘snifters’, collect at Brookfield Zoo. |
▪ II. snifter, v.
(ˈsnɪftə(r))
[Imitative: cf. snift v.
Other purely dial. senses are recorded in the Eng. Dial. Dict., as, to giggle, to snow slightly, etc.]
1. intr. To sniff, snivel, snuffle.
| c 1340 Nominale (Skeat) 152 Man snyfterith and nose snyt. 1483 Cath. Angl. 347/1 To Snyfter, revmatizare, fleumaticare. 1611 Cotgr., Brouffer, to snurt, or snifter with the nose, like a horse. Ibid., Nifler, to snifter, or snuffe vp sniuell; to draw it vp by drawing in the wind. 1719 Ramsay 2nd Answ. Hamilton xii, Gin I can snifter thro' mundungus. 1825– in Sc. and north. glossaries and texts (Eng. Dial. Dict.). 1835 Hogg Tales & Sk. V. 266, I was obliged to..snifter like a whipped boy. 1853 Hickie tr. Aristoph. (1872) II. 550 He would have lain sniftering if he was a coward. |
2. trans. With out: To utter (words) in a snuffling manner. rare.
| 1880 W. Grant Christ our Hope, etc. p. xx, He is indeed a forcible speaker, sniftering out his words with the quaintest, queerest accent. |
Hence ˈsnifterer; ˈsniftering ppl. a.
| 1790 A. Wilson Rabby's Mistake Poems 1876 II. 41 Nae sniftering dog had he, I wat, To air't him to the lanely spat Whare ony creature lay. a 1800 Pegge Suppl. Grose, Sniftering fellow; a shuffling sneaking fellow. Lanc. 1855 [Robinson] Whitby Gloss., Snifle,..to have the habit of puffing in audible successions through the nostrils, as a ‘snifterer’. |