snift

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English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

snift (countable and uncountable, plural snifts)

  1. (UK dialectal, Lancashire, obsolete) A moment; a while.
    • a. 1890, Edwin Waugh, Dinner Time:
      An' if thou'll make a shift effort
      To tak thi time a bit, owd lass,
      Thou's have him in a snift!
    • 1982, Brian Hollingworth, Songs of the People: Lancashire Dialect Poetry, page 71:
      An ' if thou'll make a shift To tak thi time a bit, owd lass, Thou's have him in a snift!”
  2. (UK dialectal, uncountable) A light dusting, as of snow.
    • 1746, Samuel Bamford, Tim Bobbin's Tummus, page 15:
      Good Lorjus, Meary ! theawrt so hasty; so I clum th' steeigh in o snift, shoavt th' awts eawt, an smackt me riddle oth' hoyle.
    • 1914, “Progress in the Mvement to Promote the Brick Industry”, in The Clay-worker, volume 61, page 652:
      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.
    • 2012, Henry Gould, Lanthanum, page 22:
      Mingled labdanum w'fine snift of myrrh, to enhaunt her nautical J-chamois

Etymology 2

Imitative. Compare Middle English snifteren (“to sniffle”).

Verb

snift (third-person singular simple present snifts, present participle snifting, simple past and past participle snifted)

  1. (now dialectal) To sniff; to snort or snuff.
    • 1792, Frances Burney, Journals and Letters, Penguin, published 2001, page 349:
      [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.
    • 1755 April 15, Samuel Johnson, “SNUFF”, in A Dictionary of the English Language: , volume II (L–Z), London: J and P Knapton;  , →OCLC, column 1:
      SNUFF. […] Reſentment expreſſed by ſnifting; […]
    • 1828, Walter Savage Landor, “Bishop Burnet and Humphrey Hardcastle”, in Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, volume III, London: Henry Colburn, , →OCLC:
      It now appears that they were still snifting narration of your lordship is for the greater part and hankering after their old
  2. To snivel.
  3. To cause a snift; to release pressure and vapor, such as from a steam engine or bottling equipment.
    • 1827, John Farey, A Treatise on the Steam Engine, page 253:
      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 valve should snift more than enough when it is left quite open , as it will be apt to do when all the preceding articles are put in execution.
    • 1907, M. L. Blumenthal, The Bottler's Helper, page 66:
      Hold it for a second or two to test the bottle, then snift, and fill the bottle up to the neck.
    • 1961, John Ransom Roebuck, Notebooks, Ca.1901-61, pages 34–35:
      Air impurity was reduced to 0.01 percent by freezing a large cylinder of liquid with dry ice and snifting the vapor liberally.
    • 1965, Gas Journal - Volumes 323-324, page 354:
      the pipeline, by which air or vapour is snifted from the pipeline as the liquid level falls by the approach of an air pocket, through a float-operated valve to a catch tank fitted with a flame trap vent.

Noun

snift (plural snifts)

  1. A deliberate release of pressure and vapor, such as from a steam engine, or bottling equipment.
    • 1827, John Farey, A Treatise on the Steam Engine, page 253:
      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 engine come fairly in, that is, for the piston to come fully down, and if it goes out in preference to that of coming in, the better.
    • 1890 August 7, The Times:
      The whole of the ‘snift’ (which is the waste in bottling aerated waters) is saved by this machine.
    • 1896, Great Britain. Patent Office, Patents for Inventions. Abridgments of Specifications, page 97:
      the face and edge respectively of this cam actuate the snift and filling valves c and d.
    • 2016, Philip R. Ashurst, Chemistry and Technology of Soft Drinks and Fruit Juices, page 155:
      If we consider a bottle with a gas headspace of 5% of the bottle volume, on the first snift the gas loss would be 5% of the bottle volume. On the second snift we would lose a further 5%.

Usage notes

  • Often used attributively, as in snift valve.

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