Snore
noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 The act of snoring, and the noise produced.
- 2 the act of snoring or producing a snoring sound wordnet
- 3 An extremely boring person or event. informal
- 4 the rattling noise produced when snoring wordnet
- 1 To breathe during sleep with harsh, snorting noises caused by vibration of the soft palate. ambitransitive
"While you here do ſnoaring lie, / Open-ey'd Conſpiracie / His time doth take: / If of Life you keepe a care, / Shake off ſlumber, and beware. / Awake, awake."
- 2 breathe noisily during one's sleep wordnet
Example
More examples"When it comes to snoring, no one can top Mr Snore."
Etymology
From Middle English snoren, fnoren (“to snore loudly; snort”), from Middle English snore, *fnore (“snore; snort”, noun), from Old English fnora (“snort; sneezing”), from Proto-Germanic *fnuzô, from Proto-Indo-European *pnew- (“to breathe; snort; sneeze”). Compare also Proto-West Germanic *snarkōn, Middle Low German snorren (“to drone”), Dutch snorren (“to hum, purr”). The change fn → sn in this word is regular, seen also in sneeze, from Middle English fnesen (see sneeze for more).
Related phrases
More for "snore"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.