Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to drink alcohol.

1903		E.W. Townsend Sure 24: [A] man in a mobe pull out a flask and he says, ‘Here, young man, sniff dat.’ I sniffs about tree fingers of it, and it puts me to de good, for fair.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 101: We know he sniffs sherry.

2. (drugs) to inhale heroin, cocaine, glue or any other intoxicating substance; thus sniffing party n., a party at which such substances are inhaled.

1907		Charlotte News (NC) 3 Apr. 9/1: ‘How do they take the stuff?’ [...] ‘They sniff it up the nose’.
1913		N.Y. Times 5 Dec. n.p.: The victims [i.e. of heroin] [...] hold regularly what are known as ‘sniffing parties,’ when the drug is passed around occasionally as the chief means of entertainment.
1914		Times-Dispatch (Richmond, VA) 2 June 2/4: [of cocaine] The extent to which ‘sniffing’ has grown [...] will doubtless come as a revelation.
1919		(con. 1914) ‘Leda Burke’ Dope-Darling 86: A tall beauty [...] came up and openly asked Claire for cocaine. Taking her gold box she began sniffing it and laughing hysterically.
1924		Truth (Brisbane) 22 June 12/5: ‘Cocaine may be taken hypodermically or by “sniffing” or “snowing,” as it is called’.
1926		Van Vechten Nigger Heaven 251: Sniff the happy dust, baby. It’ll make you feel better.
1933		C. Himes ‘Prison Mass’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 162: Where he got his real kick [...] was out of gambling or sitting around with a bunch of pretty molls ‘sniffing’ cocaine.
1943		W. Guthrie Bound for Glory (1969) 216: That’s one way of fixing a shot of dope – morphine. Sometimes you use a needle, sometimes you sniff it.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 30: Those who sniff are apt to have red nostrils.
1967		R. Conot Rivers of Blood 93: All you do is get stupid high sniffing that stuff!
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 74: The kid was only sniffin’, not skin-poppin’.
1981		J. Sullivan ‘The Second Time Around’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Cut it out, what have you been doing, sniffing that glue again have you?
1993		K. Lette Foetal Attraction (1994) 209: Skinheads sniffed glue, alkies pissed up against protected buildings.
1995		G. Small Ruthless 238: If a man in our area an’ him a sniff [snort cocaine], him can’t mek we know.
1999		Guardian G2 14 July 8: For fun we sniffed Tippex from plastic bags.
2005		B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 5: [of glue] He’d obviously been sniffing all afternoon. He was in [...] Zombie Voodoo Land.
2009		IOL News (Western Cape) 21 Feb. 🌐 She uses a DVD cover to mash the ‘white powder’ which they later ‘sniff’.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 42: Soon I’m [...] sitting up nights sniffin, drinkin like a fish.

3. (US black/drugs) a marijuana smoker.

1941

‘Digg Mee’ ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 12 Apr. 9/6: For the ‘sneefers’ of the ‘reefers’, for the windbags and the ‘beefers’.