snifter
To sniff; also, to snivel or snuffle.
Noun
- A sniff.
- A strong or severe wind.
- A small, wide, pear-shaped glass used for drinking aromatic liquors such as bourbon and brandy.
- [H]e springs to another wooden vat and turns a valve, filling a snifter with a warm amber liquid. […] Bang holds the liquid up to the light, swirls it around, takes a sniff of the pungent bouquet, puts the glass to his...
Synonyms: brandy bowl brandy glass brandy snifter cognac glass whiskey glass
- Synonym of nip (“a small amount of an alcoholic beverage, especially one equivalent to what a snifter (noun sense 2.2) might hold”)
- "Sit down, bo," invited Soup Face. "I guess you're a regular all right. Here, have a snifter?" and he pulled a flask from his side pocket, holding it toward The Oskaloosa Kid. - 1917 (date written), Edgar Rice...
- And now, old horse, you may lead me across the street to the Coal Hole for a short snifter. - 1923 June, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “The Début of Battling Billson”, in Ukridge, London: Herbert Jenkins […],...
Synonyms: nip
- Synonym of cocaine addict; a sniffer.
Synonyms: cocaine addict
- A small amount of cocaine taken by inhaling through the nose.
- A handheld device used to detect signals from radio transmitters; a sniffer.
Origin
The verb is derived from Middle English snifteren, snifter, snyfter (“to sniffle”), possibly from *snift (possibly derived from an Old Norse word—compare Old Danish snifte and Swedish snyfta (“to sniffle; to sob”); probably ultimately imitative) + -er- (frequentative suffix) + -en (suffix forming the infinitive of verbs). The noun is derived from the verb.
Forms
Derived
Verb
- To sniff; also, to snivel or snuffle.
- Brouffer. To ſnurt, or ſnifter vvith the noſe, like a horſe. - 1611, Randle Cotgrave, compiler, “Brouffer”, in A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, signature [M vj], verso,...
- Nifler. To ſnifter, or ſnuffe vp ſniuell; to dravv it vp by dravving in the vvind. - 1611, Randle Cotgrave, compiler, “Nifler”, in A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC,...
- I confess when I heard this read out in a strong, mellow and affecting tone, I could not resist crying; the tears ran down my cheeks, and I was obliged to dight them with my sleeve, and snifter like a whipped boy. -...
- Followed by out: to speak (words) in a nasal, snuffling manner.