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Glite Dictionary
👃 To smell 👃 A nose breath
sniff

sniff

84 1.1
A quick breath in through the nose to check a smell
  • noun
  • /snɪf/
translation icon : olfateo
  • One sniff, and you knew it was a place full of living things.
  • a sniff test
  • scratch-and-sniff

Get me some sniffs of burn pit down there in Ukraine.

Examples

  • I don't know if this passes the sniff test or not.

  • The scientist inhales a deep sniff of the steam curling off the soup.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Discreetly, he gave his underarms a cursory sniff, then realized that he was not alone.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Harper uses a land-based version of the sniff tubes for measuring methane emissions from cattle breath.

    Academic text (1997)

  • He took a quick sniff of the flowers to enjoy their sweet scent.

  • After a brief sniff, she could tell that dinner was almost ready.

  • The dog gave a long sniff to explore the new scent in the air.

Synonyms

inhalation
vssniff
  • Specialized
24 4.1

Breathing air or gas into the lungs

is the nose-based breath focused on detecting odors rather than general breathing
intake
vssniff
  • Specialized
7 3.5

The act of breathing air into the lungs

is the nasal inhalation aimed at noticing or identifying a smell
snuff
vssniff
  • Archaic
2 8.6

A quick smell taken through the nose

has identical meaning but uses different wording
quick whiff
vssniff
5.4

A short breath you take to smell something

is a more general nasal breath used to detect smells rather than being very brief

How Strong

snort
42 4.1
sniff
84 1.1
breath
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

sniff singular
sniffs plural

Etymology

Sniff comes from an old imitation of the quick breathing sound you make through the nose, like a small 'breathe in through the nose'. It is similar to other 'sn-' words such as snore and sneeze that copy nose sounds, so a sniff is literally a short inhale to check a smell or clear the nose.