sniffly

1 4.6

Having a runny nose and often making soft nose sounds because of a cold or allergy

adjective
/ˈsnɪfli/

: mucosidad

(Vincent knew the sniffly-wheezy quality of that; he'd heard it a million times, first with Ben) but a horror-movie scream, like a big girl's...
sniffly nose

Examples

I could hear my sniffly friend struggle to speak through her cold during our call.
The little girl had a sniffly voice as she told her mother she did not feel well.
She is crying in a sniffly, brittle way that makes people not dare to approach her.

Fiction book (1994)
After catching a cold, he woke up every morning with a sniffly nose.

Synonyms

snot-nosed

vssniffly

Informal

1 8.6

Having a runny nose with snot on the face

focuses on making nasal breathing sounds rather than nose dirtiness or runniness

snuffly

vssniffly

6.1

Having a blocked or runny nose and making soft sniffing sounds

is about a tendency to make small nasal breathing sounds from cold or allergies

snuffling

vssniffly

6.4

Making soft repeated sniffing sounds because of a blocked or runny nose

is about the ongoing action of making nasal sounds rather than the nose condition

How Congested

blocked

1.7

congested

Specialized

5 3.6

stuffy

5 3.7

sniffly

1 4.6

Surface Forms

sniffly positive

Morphology

sniffly = sniffle (transparent) = sniffle + y

Formed from the familiar verb/noun 'sniffle' plus the adjectival suffix '-y', giving 'characterized by sniffling', which is easily derived by learners.

Etymology

The word sniffly comes from the simple verb sniff, which means 'to breathe in quickly through the nose', plus the ending -ly that makes an adjective meaning 'tending to' or 'having'. So sniffly means 'tending to sniff' or having a runny nose, which is why we use it for someone with a cold or allergies.