[f. SNUFFLE v.]
1. That snuffles; drawing air up the nose, or characterized by this.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, II. xi. (1912), 216. A water spaniell … came downe the river, shewing that he hunted for a duck, & with a snuffling grace.
1735. Somerville, Chase, I. 324. His Heart Beats quick; his snuffling Nose, his active Tail Attest his Joy.
1760. Cautions & Adv. Officers of Army, 98. Little Good can be expected from him whose snuffling Nose, unbraced Nerves, and rotten Carcase, denote him fitter for his Grave … than for his Duty.
1800. Hurdis, Favourite Village, 33. What time the snuffling spaniel, as he runs, Pants freely.
1849. Alb. Smith, Pottleton Legacy (1854), 64. Little shrews peered with perking snuffling noses.
fig. 1869. Browning, Ring & Bk., XI. 1502. Whose swine-like snuffling greed and grunting lust I had to wink at.
2. Speaking through the nose; canting, hypocritical, sanctimonious.
c. 1600. Day, Begg. Bednal-Gr., IV. i. (1659), G 2. I think this snuffling slave flouts us.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills (1872), IV. 124. A Pox of all these snuffling Knaves, That do our Sports despise.
1793. [see SNAFFLING ppl. a.].
1820. W. Irving, Sketch Bk. (1859), 69. The service was performed by a snuffling well-fed vicar.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 399. The straight-haired, snuffling, whining saints, who christened their children out of the Book of Nehemiah.
1868. Bp. Wilberforce, in R. S. Wilberforce, Life (1882), III. ix. 271. I have infinitely more sympathy … with his views concerning the Church than with those of the snuffling Puritan clique.
3. Coming or uttered through the nose; nasal. Also fig.
1819. Scott, Ivanhoe, vii. Answered the Prior, in a sort of snuffling tone.
1841. Thackeray, Sec. Funeral Napoleon, iii. They chanted something in a weak, snuffling … manner.
1871. Lowell, Study Wind. (1886), 278. He bewails … in snuffling heroics.
Hence Snufflingly adv., in a snuffling manner.
1619. R. Weste, Bk. Demeanor, 57, in Babees Bk. Nor practize snufflingly to speake.
1837. New Monthly Mag., L. 415. James shuffled, and snuffled,… and snufflingly said [etc.].
