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snuff

Pronunciation: /snʌf/

The English word “snuff” has 18 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. Finely ground or pulverized tobacco (or other plant derivative) intended for use by being sniffed or snorted into the nose.
  2. Fine-ground or minced tobacco, dry or moistened, intended for use by placing a pinch behind the lip or beneath the tongue.
  3. A snort or sniff of fine-ground, powdered, or pulverized tobacco.
  4. The act of briskly inhaling by the nose; a sniff, a snort.
  5. Resentment or skepticism expressed by quickly drawing air through the nose; snuffling; sniffling.
  6. Snot, mucus.
  7. Smell, scent, odour.
  8. The burning part of a candle wick, or the black, burnt remains of a wick (which must be periodically removed).
  9. Leavings in a glass after drinking; heeltaps.
  10. A murder.
  11. A video showing a real, non-acted murder.
  12. Erotica focusing on a character's murder.

verb

  1. To inhale through the nose.
  2. To turn up the nose and inhale air, as an expression of contempt; hence, to take offense.
  3. To drug (a person) with a mixture of snuff and beer.
  4. To extinguish a candle or oil-lamp flame by covering the burning end of the wick until the flame is suffocated.
  5. To trim the burnt part of a candle wick.
  6. 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”)).

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.