snuffle
/ˈsnʌf(ə)l
/verb [no object]
1Breathe noisily through the nose due to a cold or crying: Alice was weeping quietly, snuffling a little...
- My mother and I watched the film in the early-evening gloom, snuffling, our noses emptying steadily into our Kleenexes.
- Carrie was sitting at the kitchen table, crying, and snuffling and blowing her nose.
- She lay facing the wall, snuffling quietly, tousling her kitty's head.
1.1(Especially of an animal) make repeated sniffing sounds as though smelling at something: the collie snuffled around his boots (as noun snuffling) she heard a strange, persistent snuffling...
- Then I could hear one thing more: the Dog was snuffling.
- The horse snuffled at his neck, but the boy continued to cry.
- The bear is snuffling and snorting and looking around the picnic table for more food.
noun
1A sniff or sniffing sound: a silence broken only by the faint snuffles of the dogs...
- Okay, so my neighbour may have heard the faintest of snuffles coming from the vague direction of my garden chair as he rattled and coughed his way into his shed in an embarrassed, but valiant, attempt to pretend he hadn't actually seen me.
- Dolly has discovered that the little West Highland puppy next door is willing to exchange cautious sniffs and snuffles under the fence and I think she's quite taken with the little mite.
- One glance at their healthy-looking and cheerful toddler playing in the corner - despite a bit of a cough, a few snuffles and some pale spots on the trunk - is enough to make this diagnosis highly improbable.
1.1 (usually the snuffles) informal A cold or other infection that causes sniffing: he went down with the snuffles...
- It is fatally simplistic to compare their survival figures, excellent though they are, with those of a small hospital in the suburbs that treats mainly children with snuffles and chest infections.
- The baby was also quite irritable and prone to colic, poor sleep and frequent fevers with snuffles.
- From April on, one in every four Americans suffers from the sneezes, snuffles and itchiness of hay fever - the catch-all term for a range of allergic diseases, the most common of which is allergic rhinitis.
Derivatives
snuffler
- So, if you're a seasonal snuffler you'll be glad to hear about the world's first anti-allergen air conditioner.
- That's unless, of course, you're one of the snufflers on the tube suffering from hay fever.
- I find snufflers to be some of the most annoying, rude, and disgusting people in the world.
snuffly
- Are we talking about the little furry things with snuffly snouts and sharp claws, very bad eyesight, those fellows?
- I'm now very snuffly and very miserable and staying at home today.
- And don't even get me started on my snuffly nose.
Origin
Late 16th century: probably from Low German and Dutch snuffelen; compare with snuff2 and snivel.