Snuffle

//ˈsnʌfəl// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An act of snuffling; sniffing loudly.
  2. 2
    the act of breathing heavily through the nose (as when the nose is congested) wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To sniff or smell with the nose loudly and audibly. intransitive
  2. 2
    cry or whine with snuffling wordnet
  3. 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. 4
    snuff up mucus through the nose wordnet
  5. 5
    sniff or smell inquiringly wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
snivelsnuffaffectationaqua lungaqua-lungartificial respiration

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.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.