sneeze at

sneeze at
{v.}, {informal} To think of as not important; not take seriously. - Used with negative or limiting words and in questions. * /Mr. Jones was chosen by his party to run for President. He was not elected, but to be chosen to run is not to be sneezed at./ * /If you think Mrs. Green's tests are things to be sneezed at, you have a surprise coming./ * / Is a thousand dollars anything to sneeze at?/ * /John finished third in a race with twenty other runners. That is nothing to sneeze at./

Dictionary of American idioms. 2013.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Sneeze — Sneeze, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Sneezed}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Sneezing}.] [OE. snesen; of uncertain origin; cf. D. snuse to sniff, E. neese, and AS. fne[ o]san.] To emit air, chiefly through the nose, audibly and violently, by a kind of involuntary… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Sneeze — Sneeze, n. A sudden and violent ejection of air with an audible sound, chiefly through the nose. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • sneeze — sneeze; sneeze·less; …   English syllables

  • sneeze at — [v] disregard blink at*, brush aside, brush away, brush off, discount, have no use for*, laugh off*, let pass*, look the other way*, overlook, pass over, pay no attention to, pay no heed to, pay no mind*, shut eyes to*, slight, snub, take lightly …   New thesaurus

  • sneeze — ► VERB ▪ make a sudden involuntary expulsion of air from the nose and mouth due to irritation of one s nostrils. ► NOUN ▪ an act or the sound of sneezing. ● not to be sneezed at Cf. ↑not to be sneezed at DERIVATIVES sneezer noun …   English terms dictionary

  • sneeze — [snēz] vi. sneezed, sneezing [ME snesen, prob. echoic alteration of fnesen < OE fneosan: for IE base see PNEUMA] to exhale breath from the nose and mouth in a sudden, involuntary, explosive action, as a result of an irritation of the nasal… …   English World dictionary

  • Sneeze — A sneeze (or sternutation) is a semi autonomous, convulsive expulsion of air from the lungs, most commonly caused by foreign particles irritating the nasal mucosa. Sneezing can further be triggered through sudden exposure to bright light, a… …   Wikipedia

  • sneeze — {{11}}sneeze (n.) 1640s, from SNEEZE (Cf. sneeze) (v.). {{12}}sneeze (v.) O.E. fneosan to snort, sneeze, from P.Gmc. *fneusanan (Cf. M.Du. fniesen, Du. fniezen to sneeze; O.N. fnysa to snort; O.N. hnjosa, Swed. nysa to sneeze; O.H.G …   Etymology dictionary

  • sneeze — [15] The Old English word for ‘sneeze’ was fnēsan, a distant relative of Greek pneuma ‘breath’ (source of English pneumatic). This survived into Middle English as fnese. The letters f and s were very similar in medieval script, so it could have… …   The Hutchinson dictionary of word origins

  • sneeze — [15] The Old English word for ‘sneeze’ was fnēsan, a distant relative of Greek pneuma ‘breath’ (source of English pneumatic). This survived into Middle English as fnese. The letters f and s were very similar in medieval script, so it could have… …   Word origins

  • sneeze — sneeze1 [sni:z] v [: Old English; Origin: fneosan] 1.) if you sneeze, air suddenly comes from your nose, making a noise, for example when you have a cold ▪ She started coughing and sneezing. ▪ The dust was making him sneeze . 2.) not to be… …   Dictionary of contemporary English

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