Meanings of sternutation in English

At the first sternutation the rats jumped up and looked about them, evidently considerably alarmed.

Would anyone believe that a simple sternutation could produce such ravages on a quadrupedal organism?

He gripped the upstairs banister, squinting in that torturous, semi-orgasmic state that comes before a whopping sternutation.

If she had not sneezed, she would have heard all, and so should I; but that unlucky sternutation routed Dr. John.

She says she can't control it, it's loud, and her colleagues are starting to make less than comradely comments about her high-decibel sternutations.