Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To quarrel; be offended.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun British slang An unpleasant smell.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an unpleasant smell

Etymologies

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Examples

  • This description ends with the words, “… and walruses wif teef nike niff.”

    Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » Win a SONY Reader. It’s as easy as sharing your emotions. 2009

  • There was a smell about the place, which I imagined as the smell of misery and fear, though I supposed it was no more than the niff of ancient squalor and an absence of drains.

    Sick Cycle Carousel 2010

  • The general historical niff level would only be worthy of comment to a time traveller.

    Sense of smell in historical fiction Carla 2006

  • After dinner Billy Ray went off to niff, and I went over to the library to see about Browning.

    Futures Imperfect Willis, Connie 1994

  • At length, however, she departed, grumbling between her teeth, that she wad rather lock up a haill ward than be fiking about thae niff-naffy gentles that gae sae muckle fash wi’ their fancies.

    Chapter XLIV 1917

  • They also told me that when you got close to them, they had a "'trong,' trong 'niff;' niff too much."

    Travels in West Africa Mary H. Kingsley 1881

  • At length, however, she departed, grumbling between her teeth, that 'she wad rather lock up a haill ward than be fiking about thae niff-naffy gentles that gae sae muckle fash wi' their fancies. '

    Guy Mannering, Or, the Astrologer — Complete Walter Scott 1801

  • At length, however, she departed, grumbling between her teeth, that 'she wad rather lock up a haill ward than be fiking about thae niff-naffy gentles that gae sae muckle fash wi' their fancies. '

    Guy Mannering — Complete Walter Scott 1801

  • At length, however, she departed, grumbling between her teeth, that 'she wad rather lock up a haill ward than be fiking about thae niff-naffy gentles that gae sae muckle fash wi' their fancies. '

    Guy Mannering, Or, the Astrologer — Volume 02 Walter Scott 1801

  • But in time he came to feel that merely stifling the piggy niff was unambitious: the vast lakes of pigshit produced at hog farms ought in some way to be a revenue source rather than a waste product.

    The Register Team Register 2010

Comments

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  • "There was a smell about the place, which I imagined as the smell of misery and fear, though I supposed it was no more than the niff of ancient squalor and an absence of drains."

    —Diana Gabaldon, Outlander (NY: Delacorte Press, 1991), 704

    January 1, 2010

  • JM knowns a niff is not nifty and turns his nose up at it.

    February 17, 2011