The Collaborative International Dictionary
Stertorous \Ster"to*rous\ (st[~e]r"t[-o]*r[u^]s), a. [L. stertere to snore: cf. F. stertoreux.] Characterized by a deep snoring, which accompanies inspiration in some diseases, especially apoplexy; hence, hoarsely breathing; snoring.
Burning, stertorous breath that hurt her cheek.
--Mrs.
Browning.
The day has ebbed away, and it is night in his room,
before his stertorous breathing lulls.
--Dickens.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"characterized by snoring," 1802, from Modern Latin stertor (from Latin stertere "to snore," from PIE imitative root *pster-) + -ous. Related: Stertorously; stertorousness.
Wiktionary
a. Sounding like snoring or snorting.
WordNet
adj. of breathing having a heavy snoring sound
Usage examples of "stertorous".
Her breathing grew stertorous, the mouth opened, and the pale gums, drawn back, made the teeth look longer and sharper than ever.
A couched spear of acuminated granite rested by him while at his feet reposed a savage animal of the canine tribe whose stertorous gasps announced that he was sunk in uneasy slumber, a supposition confirmed by hoarse growls and spasmodic movements which his master repressed from time to time by tranquilising blows of a mighty cudgel rudely fashioned out of paleolithic stone.
He was held down by two dressers, the chloroform was pushed, and by the time the candles were relit, his incoherent, half-smothered shoutings had changed to a stertorous snore.
It befell that somewhere near the second hour of night, the moon being overcast at the time--for there were threats of a storm in the sky--the sentinel on the eastern wall heard a sound of splashing in the moat below, accompanied by the stertorous breathing of a swimmer whose mouth is not well above water.