[f. as prec.] That sniffs, in senses of the vb.; characterized by sniffing.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., I. x. To him thou, with sniffing charity, wilt protrusively proffer thy hand-lamp. Ibid. (1837), Fr. Rev., II. I. x. What a humour the once sniffing mocking City of Paris … had got into.
Hence Sniffingly adv., with a sniff (esp. of scorn or contempt).
1873. Bayne, in Contemp. Rev., XXI. 411. He glances at Cromwell’s speeches jauntily, sniffingly, in a mood of pleasant indifference dashed by cynicism.
1893. K. Grahame, in National Observer, 23 Sept., 487/1. Charlotte turned away sniffingly.
