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Fine Dictionary

snuff

snəf
WordNet
Rectangular gold snuff box, with animals and tendrils in translucent enamel on a gold background engraved with diamond pattern.
Rectangular gold snuff box, with animals and tendrils in translucent enamel on a gold background engraved with diamond pattern.
  1. (adj) snuff
    snuff colored; of a greyish to yellowish brown
  2. (v) snuff
    inhale audibly through the nose "snuff coke"
  3. (v) snuff
    sniff or smell inquiringly
  4. (n) snuff
    sensing an odor by inhaling through the nose
  5. (n) snuff
    finely powdered tobacco for sniffing up the nose
  6. (n) snuff
    a pinch of smokeless tobacco inhaled at a single time
  7. (n) snuff
    the charred portion of a candlewick
Illustrations
Small porcelain snuff bottle with a double wall, covered with a translucent white glaze. The outer wall of the bottle with a group of monks against a ground of openwork clouds. Monochromes, white porcelain.
Snuff bottle with monks against a ground of openwork clouds
Oval snuff box in 4 colors of gold, with Louis XVI decoration. The lid and the 4 compartments have an oval rosette in the middle. Maker's mark: ILW in rectangle.
Oval snuff box in 4 colors of gold, with Louis XVI decoration. The lid and the 4 compartments have an oval rosette in the middle. Maker's mark: ILW in rectangle.
Four snuff box lids. Top left and bottom left and right with ornaments. Top right with masks.
Four snuff box lids. Top left and bottom left and right with ornaments. Top right with masks.
Oval snuff box with double lid in three colors of gold with engraved decoration in Louis XVI style.
Oval snuff box with double lid in three colors of gold with engraved decoration in Louis XVI style.
Rectangular gold snuff box. With heavy rocaille frames, inside, on the lid and along the walls on blue glass chinioseries in gold.
Rectangular gold snuff box. With heavy rocaille frames, inside, on the lid and along the walls on blue glass chinioseries in gold.
Snuff box, oval, made of tortoise shell, on which a winged heart pierced with two arrows and other ornaments carved.
Snuff box, oval, made of tortoise shell, on which a winged heart pierced with two arrows and other ornaments carved.
Mother-of-pearl lid or bottom of a snuff box. In VOC setup with V83-153.
Lid or bottom of a mother-of-pearl snuff box from the wreck of the East Indiaman 't Vliegend Hart
A young woman takes a portion of snuff between her fingers. She is holding a snuff box. She is wearing a dress that leaves her breasts uncovered. In the margin a six-line poem in French.
A young woman takes a portion of snuff between her fingers. She is holding a snuff box. She is wearing a dress that leaves her breasts uncovered. In the margin a six-line poem in French.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
Interesting fact
Catherine de Medici was the first woman in Europe to use tobacco. She took it in a mixture of snuff.
  1. Snuff
    Pulverized tobacco, etc., prepared to be taken into the nose; also, the amount taken at once.
  2. Snuff
    Resentment, displeasure, or contempt, expressed by a snuffing of the nose.
  3. Snuff
    The act of snuffing; perception by snuffing; a sniff.
  4. Snuff
    The part of a candle wick charred by the flame, whether burning or not. "If the burning snuff happens to get out of the snuffers, you have a chance that it may fall into a dish of soup."
  5. Snuff
    To crop the snuff of, as a candle; to take off the end of the snuff of.
  6. Snuff
    To draw in, or to inhale, forcibly through the nose; to sniff. "He snuffs the wind, his heels the sand excite."
  7. Snuff
    To inhale air through the nose with violence or with noise, as do dogs and horses.
  8. Snuff
    To perceive by the nose; to scent; to smell.
  9. Snuff
    To turn up the nose and inhale air, as an expression of contempt; hence, to take offense. "Do the enemies of the church rage and snuff ?"
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
  1. snuff
    To draw in through the nose with the breath; inhale: as, to snuff the wind; to snuff tobacco.
  2. snuff
    To scent; smell; take a sniff of: perceive by smelling.
  3. snuff
    To examine by smelling; nose: said of an animal.
  4. snuff
    To inhale air vigorously or audibly, as dogs and horses.
  5. snuff
    To turn up the nose and inhale air, as in contempt or anger; sniff disdainfully or angrily.
  6. snuff
    To smell; especially, to smell curiously or doubtfully.
  7. snuff
    To take snuff into the nose. Compare to dip snuff, under dip, v. t.
  8. (n) snuff
    Inhalation by the nose; a sniff; also, a pinch of snuff.
  9. (n) snuff
    Smell; scent; odor.
  10. (n) snuff
    Offense; resentment; huff, expressed by a sniffing.
  11. (n) snuff
    A powdered preparation of tobacco taken into the nostrils by inhalation. It is made by grinding, in mortars or mills, the chopped leaves and stalks of tobacco in which fermentation has been induced by moisture and warmth. The tobacco is well dried previous to grinding, and this is carried sometimes so far as to give the peculiar flavor of the high-dried snuffs, such as the Irish, Welsh, and Scotch. Some varieties, as the rappees, are moist. The admixture of different flavoring agents and delicate scents has given rise to fanciful names for snuffs, which, the flavor excepted, are identical. Dry snuffs are often adulterated with quicklime, and the moist kinds with ammonia, hellebore, pearl-ash, etc.
  12. (n) snuff
    In therapeutics, any powder with medicinal properties to be snuffed up into the nose.
  13. snuff
    To crop the snuff of, as a candle; take off the end of the snuff from.
  14. (n) snuff
    The burning part of a candle- or lamp-wick, or the part which has been charred by the flame, whether burning or not.
  15. (n) snuff
    A candle almost burnt out, or one having a heavy snuff.
  16. (n) snuff
    In mining, same as smift.
  17. snuff
    In currying, to smooth or put out with a sleeker. See to put out , under put, intransitive verb
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
  1. (v.i) Snuff
    snuf to draw in air violently and noisily through the nose: to sniff: to smell at anything doubtfully: to take snuff into the nose
  2. (v.t) Snuff
    to draw into the nose: to smell, to examine by smelling
  3. (n) Snuff
    a powdered preparation of tobacco or other substance for snuffing, a pinch of such: a sniff: resentment, huff
  4. (n) Snuff
    the sound made by such: a nasal twang: cant
  5. (v.t) Snuff
    snuf to crop or pinch the snuff from, as a burning candle
  6. (n) Snuff
    the charred portion of a candle or lamp-wick: a candle almost burnt out
Quotations
Lord Byron
I would rather have a nod from an American, than a snuff-box from an emperor.
Lord Byron
Middle age snuffs out more talent than even wars or sudden death does.
Gerald Brenan
Idioms

Dry as snuff - If something is as dry as snuff, it is very dry indeed.

Up to snuff - If something isn't up to snuff, it doesn't meet the standard expected.

Etymology

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary Akin to D. snuffen, G. schnupfen, schnuppen, to snuff, schnupfen, a cold in the head, schnuppen, to snuff (air), also, to snuff (a candle). Cf. Sniff Snout Snub (v. i.)

Usage in the news

A southern New Jersey police officer says a state lawmaker helped snuff out a fire that could have severely damaged her home. abclocal.go.com

(AP) — A southern New Jersey police officer says a state lawmaker helped snuff out a fire that could have severely damaged her home. nj.com

Now Westminster College will be the next one to snuff out the smoke. krcg.com

If you're worried that your murdering skills won't be up to snuff for the zombie apocalypse, invest in some Bleeding Zombie Targets. kqvt.com

Museum worker finds missing snuff box . sfgate.com

Museum worker finds missing snuff box. sfgate.com

Don 't snuff the Pumpkin Parade. thestar.com

Winterthur Museum Garden and Library has announced that the missing snuff box has been found. communitypub.com

The snuff box was found by a Winterthur staff member and was located in a place where it had never been exhibited. communitypub.com

Waco firefighters responded to a call Saturday and found what appeared to be about an ounce of mercury in a can of snuff on the side of the road, officials said. acotrib.com

Supporters of medical marijuana appeared caught off guard by Sutter County's move to snuff out an identification card program for medicinal users. appeal-democrat.com

As evolved as we like to think we are, able to own and snuff out aspects of our personality when we think we need to, we usually need some sort of painful push for change to initiate. northcoastjournal.com

Winthrop University may snuff smokers. cnc.com

Learn how to snuff them out. indowsitpro.com

' Sinister ' review: Snuff stuff. newsday.com

Usage in scientific papers

DA] The entire 4 GeV programme would probably be the first thing to get dropped if the 10 GeV luminosity wasn’t up to snuff.
The future of charm physics: a discussion

Usage in literature

The old earl took snuff with extreme deliberateness. "Aunt Rachel" by David Christie Murray

There were my ballads, my Ab Gwilym, but then I thought of Taggart and his snuff, his pinch of snuff. "Lavengro The Scholar - The Gypsy - The Priest, Vol. 1 (of 2)" by George Borrow

There were my ballads, my Ab Gwilym; but then I thought of Taggart and his snuff, his pinch of snuff. "Lavengro The Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest" by George Borrow

His snuff-boxes were numerous and costly. "Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 55, No. 344, June, 1844" by Various

The three gentlemen looked at each other and took snuff from the Doctor's gold box. "The Dew of Their Youth" by S. R. Crockett

Rum-drinking will not cease, till tobacco-chewing, and tobacco-smoking, and snuff-taking, shall cease. "A Disquisition on the Evils of Using Tobacco" by Orin Fowler

Look you here, cousin, here's a snuff-box; nay, there's snuff in't: here, will you have any? "Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce" by E. R. Billings

They divided the business between them Mr. Morgridge attending to the snuff department, Mr. Mit to the cigar and pipe branch. "Seven Little People and their Friends" by Horace Elisha Scudder

If any of you have a pinch of snuff to offer me now, I should be obliged to you. "The Three Midshipmen" by W.H.G. Kingston

For maybe a full minute there was a dead silence, while Raikes stared down at the locket, and Mr. Tawnish took a pinch of snuff. "The Honourable Mr. Tawnish" by Jeffery Farnol

Usage in poetry
You and I have little care
How the “precious moments” pass
While we snuff the drowsy air
Rich in fragrance of the grass.
Just think, if your lovers should dare
To rob your red lips of a kiss,
And for honey, find snuff hidden there,
'Twould deprive you of Love's sweetest bliss!
"He has the Snuff; but it were well
If Granny had it too!
For early closes such a day,
And wild and dreary is the way;
If dark before he reach the Dell,
What can poor Willie do?
"At length with many a danger passed,
Unboding worse to come,
He has got the Snuff. Far more than food,
Or wine, 'twill warm her poor old blood.
He has it safe at last, at last!
And sets his face for Home.
"There in his grave alive, he knew
He stood, or sat upright!
With burning brain, and freezing feet:
And he so young, and life so sweet;
And, bitter thought! what would Gran do
Without her snuff that night?
"He still fought on, for though the Storm
Might bend him, he was tough;
And when the Blast would take his breath,
With kisses like the kiss of death,
One thought still kept his courage warm—
It was Grandmother's Snuff!