sneezer

English

Etymology

From sneeze +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsniːzə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsnizɚ/

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Noun

sneezer (plural sneezers)

1. Someone who sneezes.
   • 1884, Journal of Materia Medica, volume 23, page 58:

     Hay feverites will be interested to know that Sydney Smith was also a sneezer.

   • 2002, Joy Hakim, War, Peace, and All that Jazz, page 22:

     In New York and Chicago, laws were passed making it illegal to sneeze or cough in public without using a handkerchief. Police dutifully hauled sneezers and coughers to court, where they were given stiff fines.

2. (slang) A person's nose.

   He punched me right in the sneezer!

3. (US, slang, dated) Prison.
   • 1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin, published 2010, page 200:

     ‘No cure for lads like you, is there?’ he said. ‘Except to throw you in the sneezer.’

4. (UK, slang, obsolete) A snuffbox.
   • 1859, Snowden's Magistrates Assistant, page 497:

     He has been lagged for beaker hunting, was a mushroom faker, has been on the steel for snamming a wedge sneezer; […]

5. (UK, slang, obsolete) A handkerchief.
   • 1835, Charles Mathews, Mathews's New Budget of Fun, etc, page 156:

     Some person has deprived me of my East Indian silk handkerchief. — What, have you lost your sneezer?

References

• (snuffbox; handkerchief): John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary