snuffle
/ˈsnʌfəl/ verb, noun
Forms snuffles snuffling snuffled
- verb (intransitive) To sniff or smell with the nose loudly and audibly.
- verb (intransitive) To speak through the nose; to breathe through the nose when it is obstructed, so as to make a broken sound.
- noun An act of snuffling; sniffing loudly.
Synonyms
Etymology
Probably from Low German and Dutch snuffelen (“to snuffle”), equivalent to snuff + -le. Compare also Old English snofl (“snot, nasal mucus”), which might not have survived into Middle English.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To speak through the nose; to breathe through the nose when it is obstructed, so as to make a broken sound.
- noun The act of snuffing; a sound made by the air passing through the nose when obstructed.
- noun An affected nasal twang; hence, cant; hypocrisy.
Etymology [Freq. of snuff, v.i.; akin to LG. snuffeln, G. schnüffeln, D. snuffeln, Dan. snövle. Cf. Sniffle.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “snuffle”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details