Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb With a sniffing sound or action.
  • adverb With haughty disapproval.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

sniffing +‎ -ly

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Examples

  • There was some fatty creaminess from a squirt of crema and the sniffingly sour burn of Tapatio.

    Victoria Haschka: Why You Should Eat A Fish Taco Tonight Victoria Haschka 2011

  • Soon after arrival he looked sniffingly around the walls of the stately building and harrumphed, “My regiment burned this joint down in 1814!”

    General Ike John S.D. Eisenhower 2003

  • Such an amateur he at length discovered in Brown, and these were the two who, by nine o'clock in the morning, were at the head of the Rowan Pool; their plans prearranged in every detail; both men in excellent form, head, body, and spirit; and Burdock, the keeper, resigned to the innovation of photography which he sniffingly flouted as a piece of downright tomfoolery.

    Lines in Pleasant Places Being the Aftermath of an Old Angler William Senior

  • Jane reacted promptly to the fierce imperative, and sniffingly choked back her tears.

    The Hermit of Far End Margaret Pedler

  • On a clear, still, blue evening, the air being not too gusty, the vapours will disperse and eddy over the street; and he maintains with great zeal that passersby ten tiers below will very soon look upward from the pavement, sniffingly, to discern the source of such admirable fumes.

    Plum Pudding Of Divers Ingredients, Discreetly Blended & Seasoned Christopher Morley 1923

  • Mrs. Chow down the street, for instance, why did she look so sniffingly upon him when she heard the children, in the harmless uproar of their play, cry him aloud as Daddy?

    Where the Blue Begins Christopher Morley 1923

  • She inspected the flat and, inquiry establishing the rent, sniffingly reminded them that she and Uncle John -- now unhappily deceased -- had begun their housekeeping in a fifteen-dollar-a-month cottage.

    The House of Toys Henry Russell Miller 1917

  • And now, while Charlotte turned away sniffingly, with a hiccough that told of an overwrought soul, Edward, unconscious (like Sir Isaac's Diamond) of the mischief he had done, wheeled round on Harold with a shout.

    The Golden Age 1915

  • And as he turned up his intellectual little physiognomy to the deep, warm Egyptian sky and inhaled the air sniffingly, as though it were a monster scent-bottle just uncorked for his special gratification, he smiled as he observed Muriel Chetwynd Lyle standing entirely alone at the end of the terrace, attired as a

    Ziska Marie Corelli 1889

  • And now, while Charlotte turned away sniffingly, with a hiccough that told of an overwrought soul, Edward, unconscious (like Sir

    The Golden Age Kenneth Grahame 1895

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