(v. t.) To draw air audibly up the nose; to snuff; -- sometimes done as a gesture of suspicion, offense, or contempt.
(v. t.) To draw in with the breath through the nose; as, to sniff the air of the country.
(v. t.) To perceive as by sniffing; to snuff, to scent; to smell; as, to sniff danger.
(n.) The act of sniffing; perception by sniffing; that which is taken by sniffing; as, a sniff of air.
Example Sentences:
(1) Because of the wide range of human nasal anatomic configurations, some people sniff odorants against comparatively high resistances.
(2) But some wise old heads sniff into their handkerchiefs because they have sat through too many costly "happy ever after" ceremonies that ended in acrimony.
(3) On a dreich November evening in Gourock, a red-coated mongrel is wandering between the seats in a room above a pub, pausing to sniff handbags for hidden treats.
(4) When Defoe did get a sniff six minutes before half-time, capitalising on a Sylvain Distin slip, he was denied by Artur Boruc’s leg.
(5) His running here was unstinting and he doubled his tally with a clinical finish after a first touch too smart for Pogatetz, preening perhaps after giving Boro a sniff of reprieve.
(6) When there is upheaval within China’s own borders – riots, protests, vicious political power struggles – hardly a sniff of it will be found in the pages of the country’s heavily-controlled press.
(7) We characterized the relationship between mouth pressure (Pmo) and esophageal pressure (Pes) during sniffs performed with open, semi-occluded, and occluded nose.
(8) In such destructive form Ighalo needs only the slightest sniff at goal and typically his trusty sidekick, Troy Deeney, was the provider, heading down a crossfield pass from Almen Abdi.
(9) "Partition" test was used, in which two males of one line were placed in a common cage divided into two sections by a transparent partition with holes; this partition divided the animals but allowed them to see and sniff each other.
(10) The range of Pdi during maximal sniffs (82-204 cm H2O) had better defined lower limits than Pdi during PImax.
(11) But she railed against commercial success, and at the first sniff of a big hit – Paper Planes , which sampled the Clash's Straight To Hell, and made the US and UK top 20 – she recoiled.
(12) While they spurned several opportunities here, allowing tension to creep in before Tadic scored the second 17 minutes from time, their three centre-halves did not allow the Watford strikeforce of Odion Ighalo and Troy Deeney a sniff.
(13) To assess the relationship between sniff resistance and olfaction, ten subjects without nasal pathology or complaint were asked to estimate the perceived magnitude of the odorant, ethyl butyrate, at each of four concentrations and against each of four different resistances.
(14) Odors could produce spiking responses that were either nonhabituating (response to every sniff) or rapidly habituating (response to first sniff only).
(15) MRR was determined from 10 sniffs for Pes, Pnp, and Pmo before fatigue, and at intervals up to 10 min after fatigue.
(16) But in the early days of Corbyn’s charge, the readers rightly got a sniff that on occasions we weren’t taking him seriously enough.
(17) The toluene users were more likely to sniff only in a group setting, probably because of the long duration of intoxication.
(18) More than one third of the patients aspirated a solution into the middle ear with one or more sniffs by aspirating air from their middle ears, demonstrating eustachian tube patency rather than obstruction.
(19) Don’t sniff at any movie that makes $350m (£215m) in worldwide receipts on largely middling reviews.
(20) Subjects learned to inspire at two flow rates, one twice as great as the other, by adjusting (on a cathode ray tube) the transduced trace of a sniff-produced pressure change to match either of two target contours.
Whiff
Definition:
(n.) A sudden expulsion of air from the mouth; a quick puff or slight gust, as of air or smoke.
(n.) A glimpse; a hasty view.
(n.) The marysole, or sail fluke.
(v. t.) To throw out in whiffs; to consume in whiffs; to puff.
(v. t.) To carry or convey by a whiff, or as by a whiff; to puff or blow away.
(v. i.) To emit whiffs, as of smoke; to puff.
Example Sentences:
(1) It may have been like punk never ‘appened, but you caught a whiff of the movement’s scorched earth puritanism in the mocking disdain with which Smash Hits addressed rock-star hedonism.
(2) He is also characterised as "the devoted husband of a bestselling novelist with a few of her own ideas about how fiction works"; a funny sentence construction that carries a faint whiff of husband stoically bent over his books as wife keeps popping up with pesky theories about realism.
(3) Similar messages delivered by previous populist, independent candidates like Ralph Nader and Ross Perot didn’t catch on because there was always that whiff of ego that voters like me could smell, coupled with lack of experience in government.
(4) The local undertakers were pleased to discover the great Henty to be the man they had always imagined - a full-bearded giant, stern and wise, dressed like a warrior hero or - much the same thing - a Victorian gentleman with the whiff of gunpowder and the clash of sabres about him.
(5) The zesty, citrus whiff of oranges freshens up the January kitchen, drawing a line under heavy celebratory food, and lighting up the virtuous, but enticing path to a lighter, healthier diet.
(6) The presence of three of the following four criteria was necessary: 1) vaginal pH greater than 4.5; 2) clue cells on the saline wet mount; 3) thin, homogeneous-appearing discharge; or 4) positive potassium hydroxide "whiff test."
(7) If Gleeson could be the guest speaker, how then could it be described as a “Liberal party event?” Even if it was a party occasion, the commissioner asks: “how does that demonstrate that the speaker has an affinity with a partiality for or a persuasion or allegiance or alignment to the Liberal party or lent it support?” If the fair minded lay observer (FMLO), who in this instance is the judge of apprehended bias, had an idea of Heydon’s record on the high court they might get a whiff of partiality to a particular world view, or philosophy.
(8) Despite the success of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, there was a whiff of snobbery.
(9) Photograph: Jon Tonks for the Guardian During the three years leading up to the final vote, the Sheringham story had often given off a questionable whiff.
(10) Great for families, but not those families offended by whiffs of a special herb wafting across the lawn.
(11) Yet that entire grand bazaar of old summer chemistry is all blended to me now and I can pick out just one: the first whiff of autumn.
(12) Now's as good a time as any to put out this reminder: authorities are on high alert and investigating everything that has even a whiff of suspicion.
(13) Paul Doyle The generally positive spirit: most referees allowed robust contact and, in turn, most players did not throw themselves to the ground at the first whiff of contact.
(14) It has more than a whiff of the Portsmouths about it.
(15) Add to that the venerated reputation of its wine, and a whiff of bourgeois privilege and conservatism, and you expect a city of well-groomed, self-satisfied people.
(16) You might even find people who think there is more than a whiff of sexism apparent in the building, and the critiques.
(17) 3.56pm: This retweet from the RMT has a Soviet whiff about it: RT @lindapalermo @LDN @rmtlondon #DearRMT I understand why you've called strike action and wish you victory in your actions.
(18) Male sketchwriters and assorted Westminster aficionados either affected bemused indulgence on behalf of their slighted sisters or scented the whiff of political-correctness-gone-mad.
(19) The venue was deserted and, more annoyingly, it was situated down a lane, affording the audience a whiff of urine prior to entering the palace of doom that I'd paid £7,500 for the privilege of hiring.
(20) He said there was a whiff of revenge in the air – for the police inquiry into MPs' expenses and the unjustified arrest in 2008 of the Tory MP Damian Green over a series of leaks from the Home Office about immigration.