snifter
- Also called inhaler. a pear-shaped glass, narrowing at the top to intensify the aroma of brandy, liqueur, etc.
- Informal. a very small drink of liquor.
Origin of snifter
Related Words for snifter
jar, jug, bottle, cup, sip, shot, pinch, bite, drop, nibble, jolt, dram, portion, finger, catch, mouthful, slug, morsel, snifter, weightExamples from the Web for snifter
Historical Examples of snifter
For the love of goodness, Fritz, give me a snifter of tanglefoot!
Frank Merriwell's BackersBurt L. Standish
But he was just a snifter short on that potent and undisciplined drink.
Where the Pavement EndsJohn Russell
He turned, snifter in hand, and it was easy to see that his privations had tried him sorely.
Right Ho, JeevesP. G. Wodehouse
But picking up the sail in other blows and picking it up in a Cape Horn snifter is a horse of another color.
The Viking BloodFrederick William Wallace
At sunset he quit, easy winner, and went without taking so much as a "snifter."
Tonio, Son of the SierrasCharles King
snifter
- a pear-shaped glass with a short stem and a bowl that narrows towards the top so that the aroma of brandy or a liqueur is retained
- informal a small quantity of alcoholic drink
Word Origin for snifter
Word Origin and History for snifter
1844, "a drink of liquor," earlier "a sniff," from a Scottish and northern English survival of an obsolete verb snift meaning "to sniff, snivel" (mid-14c.), of imitative origin (cf. sniff (v.)). Meaning "large bulbous stemmed glass for drinking brandy" is from 1937. The association of "drinking liquor" with words for "inhaling, snuffling" (e.g. snort (n.), snootful) is perhaps borrowed from snuff-taking and the nasal reaction to it.