A drink of spirits. Slang.

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1848.  ‘Cobblers for the party’—‘snifters for the crowd’—or ‘slugs for the entire company.’—Durivage and Burnham, ‘Stray Subjects,’ p. 110.

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1856.  An elderly female in a Tuscan bonnet and green veil, who, drawing a black pint bottle from the pocket of her dress, proceeded to take a “snifter” therefrom, with vast apparent satisfaction.—G. H. Derby (‘John Phœnix’), ‘Phœnixiana,’ p. 148.

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1856.  Upon their promising to leave if he would take one more ‘snifter,’ he asked the bar-keeper what it was that the others were drinking.—Knick. Mag., xlviii. 426 (Oct.).

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1857.  [He] rewarded the man for his rejoinder, by giving him the price of two ‘snifters.’—Id., l. 664 (Dec.).

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1858.  

        Wise sages, of the olden time,
  With introverted vision look;
But ah! a fip is not a dime,
  And for mixed ‘snifters’ can’t be took.
Id., li. 215 (Feb.).    

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