sniffle

UK/ˈsnɪf.əl/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

New Zealand/ˈsnəf.əl/

sniffle verb: to make a whimpering or sniffing sound when breathing, because of a runny nose.

Verb

sniffle (third-person singular simple present sniffles, present participle sniffling, simple past and past participle sniffled)

(intransitive) To make a whimpering or sniffing sound when breathing, because of a runny nose.
- Her dad heard her sniffling and passed her a handkerchief.
(transitive) To utter with a whimpering or sniffing sound.
- He sniffled a pathetic apology.

Noun

sniffle (plural sniffles)

The act, or the sound of sniffling; the condition of having a runny or wet nose, as from a cold or allergies.
- I sometimes have a sniffle during allergy season.

sniffle meaning in Urdu, Kannada and Vietnamese

sniffle in Urdu

زکام

sniffle in Kannada

ಸೊರಗುಟ್ಟು

sniffle in Vietnamese

to make a whimpering sound when breathing: sụt sịt

Examples of sniffle in a sentence

Many people have suffered from colds, the sniffles and other childhood illnesses.
Danny has been having the sniffles and the sneezes all week.
She sniffled and wiped her nose on her already tearstained blouse.

All 15 example sentences with sniffle

Forms of sniffle

Verb
third-person singular present	sniffles
present participle	sniffling
past participle	sniffled
past	sniffled
Noun
plural	sniffles

Past tense of sniffle: sniffled

Origin of sniffle

From sniff + -le (frequentative suffix). Compare snivel.

Words formed from sniffle

Words that rhyme with sniffle

Questions about sniffle

What does sniffle mean?: Sniffle means to make a whimpering or sniffing sound when breathing, because of a runny nose.
What is sniffle in Urdu?: Sniffle in Urdu is زکام. See Sniffle meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is sniffle?: Sniffle can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce sniffle?: Sniffle is pronounced /ˈsnɪf.əl/ (UK).
What is the past tense of sniffle?: The past tense of sniffle is sniffled.

Words near sniffle in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: sniffle (page history and authors); sniffle (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sniffle (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-sniffle.ogg.

Cite this entry: “sniffle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sniffle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.