snift meaning (obsolete): definition, etymology and quotations

snift

noun

/snɪft/

UK, Dialectal, Obsolete A moment; a while.

An' if thou'll make a shift effort To tak thi time a bit, owd lass, Thou's have him in a snift!a. 1890, Edwin Waugh, Dinner Time:
An ' if thou'll make a shift To tak thi time a bit, owd lass, Thou's have him in a snift!”1982, Brian Hollingworth, Songs of the People: Lancashire Dialect Poetry, page 71:

UK, Dialectal A light dusting, as of snow.

Good Lorjus, Meary ! theawrt so hasty; so I clum th' steeigh in o snift, shoavt th' awts eawt, an smackt me riddle oth' hoyle.1746, Samuel Bamford, Tim Bobbin's Tummus, page 15:
He frowned, and sent snifts of snow and symptoms of rain that dampened the ardor of the golf contingent and made things murky and dreary outside.1914, “Progress in the Mvement to Promote the Brick Industry”, in The Clay-worker, volume 61, page 652:

1 more example

Mingled labdanum w'fine snift of myrrh, to enhaunt her nautical J-chamois2012, Henry Gould, Lanthanum, page 22:

verb

Etymology Imitative. Compare Middle English snifteren (“to sniffle”).

Dialectal To sniff; to snort or snuff.

[S]he, also, entered, and coming pretty close to my Father, snifted at her Flowers with a sort of extatic eagerness, and then let them fall.1792, Frances Burney, Journals and Letters, Penguin, published 2001, page 349:
SNUFF. […] Reſentment expreſſed by ſnifting; […]1755 April 15, Samuel Johnson, “SNUFF”, in A Dictionary of the English Language: […], volume II (L–Z), London: […] J[ohn] and P[aul] Knapton; […], →OCLC, column 1:

1 more example

It now appears that they were still snifting narration of your lordship is for the greater part and hankering after their old1828, Walter Savage Landor, “Bishop Burnet and Humphrey Hardcastle”, in Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:

To snivel.

To cause a snift; to release pressure and vapor, such as from a steam engine or bottling equipment.

A cap and pipe should be put over the snifting clack, with an inch and a half cock upon it, by the partial opening of which the snifting can be regulated; but which will not be wanted , unless the valve should snift more than enough when it is left quite open , as it will be apt to do when all the preceding articles are put in execution.1827, John Farey, A Treatise on the Steam Engine, page 253:
Hold it for a second or two to test the bottle, then snift, and fill the bottle up to the neck.1907, M. L. Blumenthal, The Bottler's Helper, page 66:

2 more examples

Air impurity was reduced to 0.01 percent by freezing a large cylinder of liquid with dry ice and snifting the vapor liberally.1961, John Ransom Roebuck, Notebooks, Ca.1901-61, pages 34–35:
the pipeline, by which air or vapour is snifted from the pipeline as the liquid level falls by the approach of an air pocket, through a float-operated valve to a catch tank fitted with a flame trap vent.1965, Gas Journal - Volumes 323-324, page 354:

noun

Etymology Imitative. Compare Middle English snifteren (“to sniffle”).

A deliberate release of pressure and vapor, such as from a steam engine, or bottling equipment.

The proper use of the air cock is, that after the engine is got steadily to work, and the snift emits no more than it should do, that the air cock should be opened as much as it can be to let the engine come fairly in, that is, for the piston to come fully down, and if it goes out in preference to that of coming in, the better.1827, John Farey, A Treatise on the Steam Engine, page 253:
The whole of the ‘snift’ (which is the waste in bottling aerated waters) is saved by this machine.1890 August 7, The Times:

2 more examples

the face and edge respectively of this cam actuate the snift and filling valves c and d.1896, Great Britain. Patent Office, Patents for Inventions. Abridgments of Specifications, page 97:
If we consider a bottle with a gas headspace of 5% of the bottle volume, on the first snift the gas loss would be 5% of the bottle volume. On the second snift we would lose a further 5%.2016, Philip R. Ashurst, Chemistry and Technology of Soft Drinks and Fruit Juices, page 155:

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