snuff

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But our good Amos laboured under a deficiency of small tact as well as of small cash; and when he observed the action of the old woman's forefinger, he said, in his brusque way, 'So your snuff is all gone, eh Mrs. Brick's eyes twinkled with the visionary hope that the parson might be intending to replenish her box, at least mediately, through the present of a small copper Ah, well!

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Definitions (57)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (15)

  1. transitive verb To inhale (something) audibly through the nose; sniff.
  2. transitive verb To sense or examine by smelling; sniff at.
  3. intransitive verb To sniff; inhale.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (30)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (5)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (7)

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This word has been looked up 128 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

gunpowder ·  tobacco ·  incense ·  biscuit

Used in the same contextWord Family

snuff:   snuffed
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (7)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. Middle English snoffen, to snuff a candle, sniffle, probably from snoffe, snuff; see snuff2.
  2. Middle English snoffe, possibly of Low German origin.
  3. Dutch snuf, short for snuftabak : Dutch snuffen, to sniff; see snuffle + tabak, tobacco.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (4)

  1. from Middle Dutch snuffen, from Dutch snuffen, snuff (cf. Dutch snuf, smelling, scent), = German schnaufen, breathe, snuff, wheeze, snort; cf. Swedish snufva, Danish snue, cold, catarrh; Sw, snufven, a sniff; Middle High German snupfe, German schnupfen, a catarrh, schnupfen, take snuff; otherwise in freq. form snuffle, and variant sniff; cf. also sniffle, snivel.
  2. from snuff, v
  3. from Middle English snuffen, snuff (a candle) (cf. snoffe, the snuff of a candle); perhaps a variant of *snuppen,*snoppen, later English dial. snop, crop, as cattle do young shoots: see snop, and cf. snub.
  4. from Middle English snuffe, snoffe, snof; from snuff, v.
 

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/snəf/
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