Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To expel air forcibly from the mouth and nose in an explosive, spasmodic involuntary action resulting chiefly from irritation of the nasal mucous membrane.
- noun An instance or the sound of sneezing.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To emit air from the nose and mouth audibly and violently by an involuntary convulsive action, as occasioned by irritation of the lining membrane of the nose or by stimulation of the retina by a brigbt light.
- To utter with or like a sneeze.
- noun The act of one who sneezes, or the sound made by sneezing; sudden and violent ejection of air through the nose and mouth with an audible sound.
- noun Snuff. Also
snish .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To emit air, chiefly through the nose, audibly and violently, by a kind of involuntary convulsive force, occasioned by irritation of the inner membrane of the nose.
- intransitive verb [Colloq.] not to be despised or contemned; not to be treated lightly.
- noun A sudden and violent ejection of air with an audible sound, chiefly through the nose.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To expel air as a
reflex induced by anirritation in thenose . - verb To expel air
as if the nose were irritated. - noun An act of sneezing.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a symptom consisting of the involuntary expulsion of air from the nose
- verb exhale spasmodically, as when an irritant entered one's nose
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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For the record, holding in a sneeze is way easier than holding in laughter.
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This was, or would have been, evidenced by an isolated high-pitched sneeze from the far end of the car, - except - that from the far side of the other end, someone yelled out a brazen “bless you!”
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Its a joy to set them off cause its seems a sneeze is enough. (etc)
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Its a joy to set them off cause its seems a sneeze is enough.
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With you a word is an omen, you call a sneeze an omen, a meeting an omen, an unknown sound an omen, a slave or an ass an omen.
The Birds 2000
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The purr wasn't very loud, for the blue kitten was like to sneeze from the dust.
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Some of their words convey the direct meaning of the thing implied – thus, ché-charm, "to sneeze," is the very sound of that act; toó-me-duh, "to churn," gives the noise made by the dashing of the cream from side to side; and many others.
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When a certain king of Bisnagar sneezes, the court, the town, the provinces, all the subjects of his empire, in short, sneeze in imitation of their monarch.
Paris as It Was and as It Is Francis W. Blagdon 1798
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For years, we’ve all been told that the sneeze is the body’s attempt to rid itself of something foreign – to get rid of viruses and bacteria and so forth.
Nothing to Sneeze At 2009
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For years, we’ve all been told that the sneeze is the body’s attempt to rid itself of something foreign – to get rid of [...]
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