Meaning
Used of something that deserves respect or serious attention because it is genuinely considerable - especially an amount of money, an achievement, or a score. Calling a sum 'nothing to sneeze at' is a way of insisting that other people should not dismiss it. Informal in register. Informal and slightly conversational; used almost exclusively of measurable things like money, scores, crowds, and achievements. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The phrase rests on an older figurative use of 'to sneeze at' a thing, meaning to treat it with scorn, as though reacting to something too trivial to notice with a disdainful sniff. The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, quoted at Dictionary.com, dates 'not to be sneezed at' - also worded 'nothing to sneeze at' - to about 1800, and says it presumably alludes to turning up one's nose in disdain. That account of the image is inference rather than a documented first use; no firmer origin story is on record, so beyond the scornful-sneeze idea the derivation is best described as unknown.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- Not to be sneezed at
- Not to be sniffed at
- Nothing to sniff at
Usage Examples
- A five-figure signing bonus is nothing to sneeze at, even for a seasoned developer.
- The bakery's weekend queue is nothing to sneeze at - on Saturdays it stretches past the corner.
- Two million views on a first video? Nothing to sneeze at, her manager insisted.