snuffy

American  

[snuhf-ee] / ˈsnʌf i /

adjective

snuffier, snuffiest

1. resembling snuff.

2. soiled with snuff.

3. given to the use of snuff.

4. having an unpleasant appearance.

5. having hurt feelings.

6. easily displeased.

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snuffy British  

/ ˈsnʌfɪ /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or resembling snuff

2. covered with or smelling of snuff

3. unpleasant; disagreeable

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Other Word Forms

• snuffiness
  noun

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Etymology

Origin of snuffy

First recorded in 1780–90; snuff ¹ + -y ¹

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

snuffy snuffiest

Born in 1885, in a grimy coal-mining village in Nottingham shire, Lawrence soon grew, as he himself said, into "a delicate pale brat with a snuffy nose" who "trotted after his mother like a shadow."

From Time Magazine Archive

He was neither snuffy nor yet very old, but that is the way I felt toward him.

From Deep Moat Grange by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett

The post-chaise contained a snuffy old dowager of seventy, with a maid, her contemporary.

From A History of Pendennis, Volume 1 His fortunes and misfortunes, his friends and his greatest enemy by William Makepeace Thackeray

Jean François says there isn't any greater creative force in this world for pity than a very tearful, snuffy, turned-up, little girl-nose.

From Memories of a Musical Life by William Mason

Why was it of so much importance that you should spend the rest of the day with that snuffy old savage?

From In the Whirl of the Rising by Bertram Mitford

“My sister-in-law’s guardian is an American artist with eccentric ideas about educating girls to see every phase of life,” said Judy in the stuffiest, snuffiest kind of voice.

From The Claw by Cynthia Stockley

As for the Boston people, they resembled our good townsmen of Tryon County somewhat, though their clothes were of a more elegant cut, and even the snuffiest of them wore lace and buckles.

From Cardigan by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers

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