/snɪft/
OriginImitative. Compare Middle English snifteren (“to sniffle”).
- UK, countable, dialectal, obsolete, uncountableA moment; a while.
“An' if thou'll make a shift effort
To tak thi time a bit, owd lass,
Thou's have him in a snift!”
“An ' if thou'll make a shift To tak thi time a bit, owd lass, Thou's have him in a snift!””
- UK, dialectal, uncountableA light dusting, as of snow.
“Good Lorjus, Meary ! theawrt so hasty; so I clum th' steeigh in o snift, shoavt th' awts eawt, an smackt me riddle oth' hoyle.”
“He frowned, and sent snifts of snow and symptoms of rain that dampened the ardor of the golf contingent and made things murky and dreary outside.”
“Mingled labdanum w'fine snift of myrrh, to enhaunt her nautical J-chamois”
- A deliberate release of pressure and vapor, such as from a steam engine, or bottling equipment.
“The proper use of the air cock is, that after the engine is got steadily to work, and the snift emits no more than it should do, that the air cock should be opened as much as it can be to let the engi”
“The whole of the ‘snift’ (which is the waste in bottling aerated waters) is saved by this machine.”
“the face and edge respectively of this cam actuate the snift and filling valves c and d.”
- dialectalTo sniff; to snort or snuff.
“[S]he, also, entered, and coming pretty close to my Father, snifted at her Flowers with a sort of extatic eagerness, and then let them fall.”
“SNUFF. […] Reſentment expreſſed by ſnifting; […]”
“It now appears that they were still snifting narration of your lordship is for the greater part and hankering after their old”
- To snivel.
- To cause a snift; to release pressure and vapor, such as from a steam engine or bottling equipment.
“A cap and pipe should be put over the snifting clack, with an inch and a half cock upon it, by the partial opening of which the snifting can be regulated; but which will not be wanted , unless the val”
“Hold it for a second or two to test the bottle, then snift, and fill the bottle up to the neck.”
“Air impurity was reduced to 0.01 percent by freezing a large cylinder of liquid with dry ice and snifting the vapor liberally.”
Formssnifts(plural) · snifts(present, singular, third-person) · snifting(participle, present) · snifted(participle, past) · snifted(past)
Source: Wiktionary