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Snark vs Sniff - What's the difference?

snark | sniff |

As a proper noun snark

is a fictional animal in '' ''(the hunting of the snark) .

As a noun sniff is

an instance of sniffing.

As a verb sniff is

(ambitransitive) to make a short, audible inhalation, through the nose, as if to smell something.

snark

English

Etymology 1

Compare Low German snarken, North Frisian snarke, Swedish snarka, and English snort, and snore. Noun sense of “snide remarks” derived from snarky (1906), from snark (v.) "to snort" (1866) by onomatopoiea. (en)

Noun

(-)
  • Snide remarks.
    • Synonyms
    * (snide comments) sarcasm
    Related terms
    * snarkiness * snarky

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To express oneself in a snarky fashion
  • * {{quote-news, 2009, January 23, Dwight Garner, The Mahvelous and the Damned, New York Times citation
    • , passage=Other would-be Bright Young People, Lytton Strachey snarked , seemed to have “just a few feathers where brains should be.” }}
  • (obsolete) To snort.
    • Derived terms
    * snarker

    Etymology 2

    From (Snark), coined by (Lewis Carroll) as a nonce word in 1874 (The Hunting of the Snark), about the quest for an elusive creature. In sense of “a type of mathematical graph”, named as such in 1976 by (Martin Gardner) for their elusiveness.Martin Gardner, (Mathematical Games), (Scientific American), issue 234, volume 4, pp. 126–130, 1976.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (mathematics) A graph in which every node has three branches, and the edges cannot be coloured in fewer than four colours without two edges of the same colour meeting at a point.
  • (particle) A fluke or unrepeatable result or detection in an experiment.
    • Cabrera's Valentine's Day monopole detection or some extremely energetic cosmic rays could be examples of snarks .

    References

    Anagrams

    * English eponyms

    sniff

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An instance of sniffing.
    • She gave the flowers a quick sniff to check they were real.
  • A quantity of something that is inhaled through the nose
  • A brief perception
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=November 3 , author=Chris Bevan , title=Rubin Kazan 1 - 0 Tottenham , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Tottenham did have a sniff of goal when Defoe's drilled cross just eluded his strike partner at the far post but their best effort came early in the second half when Ryan Fredericks cut in from the right before firing into the side netting.}}

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (ambitransitive) To make a short, audible inhalation, through the nose, as if to smell something.
    • The dog sniffed around the park, searching for a nice scent.
    I sniffed the meat to see if it hadn't gone off.
  • To say something while sniffing, for example in case of illness or unhappiness, or in contempt.
    • "He's never coming back, is he?" she sniffed while looking at a picture of him.
  • To perceive vaguely
    • I can sniff trouble coming from the basement.
  • To be dismissive or contemptuous of something.
  • (computing) To intercept and analyse packets of data being transmitted over a network.
  • (slang, UK) To inhale drugs in powder form (usually cocaine) through the nose.

    • Derived terms

    * sniff test