Snuffle
/ˈsnʌfəl/ noun, verb
noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 An act of snuffling; sniffing loudly.
- 2 the act of breathing heavily through the nose (as when the nose is congested) wordnet
Verb
- 1 To sniff or smell with the nose loudly and audibly. intransitive
- 2 cry or whine with snuffling wordnet
- 3 To speak through the nose; to breathe through the nose when it is obstructed, so as to make a broken sound. intransitive
"One clad in purple / Eats, and recites some lamentable rhyme […] / Snuffling at nose, and croaking in his throat."
- 4 snuff up mucus through the nose wordnet
- 5 sniff or smell inquiringly wordnet
Example
More examples"One clad in purple / Eats, and recites some lamentable rhyme […] / Snuffling at nose, and croaking in his throat."
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.