[f. the vb.]
1. A powder or preparation for inducing sneezing; snuff. Obs. exc. north. dial.
1632. trans. Bruel’s Praxis Med., 7. A sneeze of bastard Pellitory, Pepper.
c. 1746–. [see b].
a. 1800. in Pegge, Suppl. Grose.
1857–. in Lanc. dial. (Eng. Dial. Dict.).
b. attrib., as sneeze-box, -horn, -lurker (see quots.).
c. 1746. J. Collier (Tim Bobbin), View Lanc. Dial. (1775), 40 [Sneeze-horn].
1825. Brockett, N. C. Gloss., Sneeze-horn or Sneesh-horn, a common sort of snuff-box, made of cow’s horn.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, xliii. To think of … the Artful Dodger going abroad for a common twopenny-halfpenny sneeze-box!
1864. Slang Dict., Sneeze-lurker, one who throws snuff in a person’s face, and then robs him.
2. An act of sneezing; a sudden and involuntary expiration of breath through the nose and mouth, accompanied by a characteristic sound.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., IV. ix. 199. Upon a sneeze of the Emperour of Monomotapa, there passed acclamations successively through the city.
1671. Milton, P. R., IV. 458. As inconsiderable, And harmless, if not wholsom, as a sneeze To mans less universe.
1839. Dickens, Nickleby, iv. The little boy on the top of the trunk gave a violent sneeze.
1874. Carpenter, Ment. Phys., I. i. (1879), 17. Whilst the act of coughing can be excited by a mandate of the will,… we cannot thus execute a true sneeze.
