1768 A. Ross Fortunate Shepherdess 32 Wi weet an wind sae tyte into my teeth,..I gat na sik a teazle this seven year... I maun na ilka day be coming here, To get sic sniflers [1789 snifters].

1866– in northern dial. glossaries.

1886 B. Harte Snowbound 121 This is no blizzard, but a regular two-days' snifter.

1897 F. T. Bullen Cruise ‘Cachalot’ 350 There came a ‘snifter’ from the hills that caught her unprepared, making her reel again.

1808 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. Snifters, a stoppage of the nostrils from cold, which occasions frequent sniffing.

1828 D. M. Moir Life Mansie Wauch xvii. 244 I asked him..about..curing the sturdie, and the snifters.

1837 J. W. Carlyle Lett. I. 71 The blessedness of having a head clear of snifters.

1844 H. Stephens Bk. of Farm II. 260 The only disease [among fowls] I can remember to have seen in winter is what is vulgarly called the snifters, that is, a discharge of matter from the nose, which causes a noise in the nose like stifled breathing.

a1835 J. Hogg Good Man Alloa xxxiii, in Poems (1865) 309 The palfrey dash'd o'er the bounding wave, with snifter and with stenne.

1866– in Sc., Yks., Lancs. dial. glossaries and texts ( Eng. Dial. Dict. ).

1884 Good Words May 324/2 With a snifter of the nostrils he emits a dry, respiratory sound.

1844 Spirit of Times 20 Apr. 86/2 He swallowed a cool ‘snifter’ at the nearest cabaret.

1848 Stray Subj. 110 Cobblers for the party,—snifters for the crowd.

1856 G. H. Derby Phœnixiana 148 An elderly female, drawing a black pint bottle from the pocket of her dress, proceeded to take a snifter.

1888 Texas Siftings 8 Aug. ‘Bring up a bottle of brandy!’ He poured out a pretty good snifter.

1910 G. B. McCutcheon Rose in Ring v. 90 You need a snifter of brandy... Joey handed her a drink from his flask.

1924 P. G. Wodehouse Ukridge iii. 56 And now, old horse, you may lead me across the street to the Coal Hole for a short snifter.

1927 E. W. Springs Nocturne Militaire 198 Just because the country is dry, don't think that you've got to do all your drinking right away. There'll be plenty left for your old age. Here's a small snifter.

1934 Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Dec. 41/1 The postboy brought George a telegram, and..on opening it George smiled and shouted snifters all round.

1942 E. Paul Narrow Street xxvii. 246 I..was on the point of suggesting that he step across to the Café St. Michel for a snifter.

1963 B. Pearson Coal Flat i. 14 Do you want a drink—or would you rather have a bit of a snifter with the boys?

1978 R. V. Jones Most Secret War vii. 59 What happened was that he had taken it from his own station to another for a lunch which was preceded, and doubtless followed, by a surfeit of what he termed ‘lightning snifters’.

1937 G. Frankau More of Us xvi. 170 And sought that other room to drain a snifter With Herr Staatsschauspielhausmeister Kohn-Goering.

1943 D. Baker Trio 155 She was sitting beside me holding a brandy snifter.

1970 J. Hansen Fadeout i. 4 A bottle of brandy warmed on the hearth... She poured splashes from it into two small snifters.

1978 G. Vidal Kalki x. iii. 241 I drank brandy from a huge Baccarat snifter.

1944 Sci. News Let. 12 Aug. 103 ‘The snifter’..is a portable, one-man direction finder that ‘smells out’ by radio the very room in which an illegal radio transmitter is hidden.

1949 Life 5 Dec. 166/2 At the start hunters with radio direction finders, called ‘snifters’, collect at Brookfield Zoo.

c1340 Nominale (Skeat) 152 Man snyfterith and nose snyt.

1483 Cath. Angl. 347/1 To Snyfter, revmatizare, fleumaticare.

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Brouffer, to snurt, or snifter with the nose, like a horse.

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Nifler, to snifter, or snuffe vp sniuell; to draw it vp by drawing in the wind.

1719 A. Ramsay 2nd Answer to Hamilton xii Gin I can snifter thro' mundungus.

1825– in Sc. and north. glossaries and texts ( Eng. Dial. Dict. ).

1835 J. Hogg Tales & Sketches V. 266 I was obliged to..snifter like a whipped boy.

1853 W. J. Hickie tr. Aristophanes Comedies II. 551 He would have lain sniftering, if he was a coward.

1880 W. Grant Christ our Hope p. xx He is indeed a forcible speaker, sniftering out his words with the quaintest, queerest accent.

1855 F. K. Robinson Gloss. Yorks. Words 161 Snifle,..to have the habit of puffing in audible successions through the nostrils, as a ‘snifterer’.

1790 A. Wilson Poems 197 Nae snifterin' dog had he, I wat, To air't him to the lanely spat Whare ony creature lay.

a1800 S. Pegge Suppl. Grose's Provinc. Gloss. (1814) Sniftering fellow; a shuffling sneaking fellow. Lanc.