sniffyadj.

1871 C. Gibbon For Lack of Gold xx Her curt sniffy manner did not alter in the least.

1896 Westm. Gaz. 4 Dec. 2/1 When Lothair's sniffy I keep out of his way.

1915 W. S. Maugham Of Human Bondage lxxiv. 382 You were rather sniffy about meeting him.

a1924 S. Baring-Gould Further Reminisc. (1925) iv. 45 Their wives were especially sniffy towards Mrs Jervis.

1965 Listener 3 June 834/3 He was catty about Balzac, sniffy about Stendhal, stuffy about Flaubert, and cagey about Baudelaire.

1979 Jrnl. Royal Soc. Arts July 511/1 Sniffy comments of a patronizing nature about Victorian buildings so regrettably sprinkled throughout earlier books in The Buildings of England are carefully avoided.

1902 R. Kipling Just So Stories 108 ‘What will happen if I do?’ said the Jaguar, most sniffily and most cautious.

1928 ‘M. Neville’ Kiss Proof xviii. 163 ‘Oh, if that's the way you feel about it,’ Toddles said sniffily.

1973 Guardian 30 June 11/3 ‘He wasn't up to much as a sub-editor,’ said one of the older hacks, sniffily.

1927 Blackwood's Mag. Dec. 834/1 I didn't think sniffiness was usual under the circumstances.

1932 G. K. Chesterton Chances iv. 118 A brilliant French critic, who does full justice to the poet otherwise, has in this matter also a faint suggestion of sniffiness.

1968 M. Collis Somerville & Ross iii. 45 In her Irish Memories (published in 1917) Edith, recalling that time, writes of the sniffyness of her brothers and uncles.

1981 Economist 24 Jan. 22/2 Although for the past two years the United States has been Algeria's largest trading partner, the relationship between the two countries has been marked by a suspicious sniffiness.

1933 ‘G. Orwell’ Let. June (1968) I. 121 There is also a certain sniffish ‘I told you so’ implication.