[f. SNORT v.]
1. One who or that which snorts († or snores); a person who utters a snort in scorn, indignation, etc.; also, a pig.
1601. Hakluyt, Galvano’s Disc. World, 85. Besides these there be certaine fishes which make a noyse like vnto hogs, and will snort, for which cause they be named snorters.
1611. Cotgr., Ronfleur, a snorer, a snorter.
1662. J. Chandler, Van Helmont’s Oriat., 213. Surely that thing … renders the Snorters of the Schooles unexcusable.
1827. in Evans, Leic. Gloss., s.v., To labourer Tom I give the swine: Snorters collected with great pains.
1894. Westm. Gaz., 25 Aug., 1/3. Suppose, then,… that the Welsh ‘snorters’ had carried their point.
b. dial. The wheatear.
1802. Montagu, Ornith. s.v. Wheatear.
1863. W. Barnes, Dorset Gloss., 87.
2. In various slang or colloq. senses: a. U.S. ‘A dashing, riotous fellow’ (Bartlett). b. A stiff or strong wind; a gale. c. Anything exceptionally remarkable for size, strength, severity, etc. d. A blow on the nose (Slang Dict., 1874).
a. 1846. T. B. Thorpe, Myst. Backwoods, 182. I am a roaring earthquake in a fight,… a real snorter of the universe.
1872. De Vere, Americanisms, 224. If animal spirits are a little too prominent, and assert themselves with vehemence, they procure for the owner the name of snorter.
b. 1855. H. A. Murray, Lands Slave & Free, I. vii. 110. My … regret … that I could not see her under the high pressure of a good snorter.
a. 1859. in Bartlett, Dict. Amer. (ed. 2), 424. The skipper said … we must make all snug, for we ’re going to have a snorter.
1900. Mrs. Steel, Hosts of the Lord, xix. We had a regular black snorter.
c. 1859. J. Lang, Wand. India, 398. The Commander-in-Chief … certainly did put forth ‘a snorter of a General Order.’
1886. Mrs. E. Kennard, Girl in the Brown Habit, i. Some of these fences are regular downright snorters.
1899. Stead, in Daily News, 19 July, 5/5. It is a leader of the kind which we used to describe as ‘a regular snorter.’
