snuff
Pronunciation: /snʌf/
The English word “snuff” has 18 meanings listed here.
noun
- Finely ground or pulverized tobacco (or other plant derivative) intended for use by being sniffed or snorted into the nose.
- Fine-ground or minced tobacco, dry or moistened, intended for use by placing a pinch behind the lip or beneath the tongue.
- A snort or sniff of fine-ground, powdered, or pulverized tobacco.
- The act of briskly inhaling by the nose; a sniff, a snort.
- Resentment or skepticism expressed by quickly drawing air through the nose; snuffling; sniffling.
- Snot, mucus.
- Smell, scent, odour.
- The burning part of a candle wick, or the black, burnt remains of a wick (which must be periodically removed).
- Leavings in a glass after drinking; heeltaps.
- A murder.
- A video showing a real, non-acted murder.
- Erotica focusing on a character's murder.
verb
- To inhale through the nose.
- To turn up the nose and inhale air, as an expression of contempt; hence, to take offense.
- To drug (a person) with a mixture of snuff and beer.
- To extinguish a candle or oil-lamp flame by covering the burning end of the wick until the flame is suffocated.
- To trim the burnt part of a candle wick.
- To snuff out; to extinguish; to put out; to kill.
Etymology
Late Middle English, from Middle Dutch snuffen (“to snuff, sniff, snuffle”). Related to Dutch snuiven (“to sniff”), Middle Low German snûve (“pose, head-cold”), German Schnupfen (“head-cold”). The noun is probably from Dutch snuf (“snuff”), an abbreviation of snuftabak, snuiftabak (“snuff”). Related to sniff (compare Dutch snuffen (“snuff”), German schnupf (“snuff”), French schnouff (“junk”)).
Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “snuff” there
More English words
About this dictionary
The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.
Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.