to "niff"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Latest OED online has this British v. as "to sniff" from 1952. Here's one considerably earlier:

  1930 C. R. Benstead _Retreat_ (N.Y.: Century) 124 [ref. to 1918]: Like an ol' bull when e' [sic] niffs a bit o' cow.

  JL


---------------------------------
Building a website is a piece of cake.
Yahoo! Small Business gives you all the tools to get online.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org