whiff
/wɪf/ noun, verb, adjective, interjection
Forms whiffs whiffing whiffed
- noun A brief, gentle breeze; a light gust of air; a waft.
- noun A short inhalation or exhalation of breath, especially when accompanied by smoke from a cigarette or pipe.
- noun (by extension, archaic) A cigarette or small cigar.
- noun An odour (usually unpleasant) carried briefly through the air.
- noun A small quantity of cloud, smoke, vapour, etc.; specifically (obsolete), chiefly in take the whiff: a puff of tobacco smoke.
- noun A flag used as a signal.
- noun Any of a number of flatfish such as (dated) the lemon sole (Microstomus kitt) and now, especially, the megrim (Lepidorhombus whiffiagonis) and (with a descriptive word) a species of large-tooth flounder or sand flounder (family Paralichthyidae).
- noun A slight sign of something; a burst, a glimpse, a hint.
- verb To carry or convey (something) by, or as by, a whiff or puff of air; to blow, puff, or waft away.
- verb To say (something) with an exhalation of breath.
- verb To inhale or exhale (smoke from tobacco, etc.) from a cigarette, pipe, or other smoking implement; to smoke (a cigarette, pipe, etc.); to puff.
- verb To breathe in or sniff (an odour); to smell.
- verb (archaic or dated) To shoot (someone) with a firearm; hence, to assassinate or kill (someone).
- verb (US, baseball) Of a pitcher: to strike out (a batter); to fan.
- verb (obsolete) To consume (an alcoholic beverage).
- verb To move in a way that causes a light gust of air, or a whistling sound.
- adjective (informal) Having a strong or unpleasant odour.
- interjection Used to indicate a sound like that of air passing through a small opening, that is, a short or soft whistle.
Synonyms
puff sniff waff waif wheft stinking whiffy bad buckish cacodorous fetid foul-smelling funky graveolent malodorous mawkish niffy noisome nonaromatic nonfragrant puff of air
Etymology
* partly a variant of Middle English wef, weffe (“bad smell, stench, stink; exhalation; vapour; tendency of something to go bad (?)”) [and other forms], possibly a variant of either:
** waf, waif, waife (“odour, scent”), possibly from waven (“to move to and fro, sway, wave; to stray, wander; to move in a weaving manner; (figuratively) to hesitate, vacillate”), from Old English wafian (“to wave”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid, weave”); or
** wef (“a blow, stroke”), from weven (“to travel, wander; to move to and fro, flutter, waver; to blow something away, waft; to cause something to move; to fall; to cut deeply; to sever; to give up, yield; to give deference to; to avoid; to afflict, trouble; to beckon, signal”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps from Old English wefan (“to weave”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid, weave”)), or from wǣfan (see bewǣfan, ymbwǣfan); and
Noun sense 6 (“name of a number of flatfish”) is possibly derived from sense 1 (“brief, gentle breeze; a light gust of air”), sense 4 (“small quantity of cloud, smoke, vapour, etc.”), and other such senses.
The verb and adjective are derived from the noun. Verb sense 2.6 (“to catch fish by dragging a handline near the surface of the water from a moving boat”) is possibly derived from sense 1.1 (“to carry or convey (something) by, or as by, a whiff or puff of air”), sense 2.2 (“to be carried, or move as if carried, by a puff of air”), and other such senses.
The interjection is derived from noun sense 7.4 (“a sound like that of air passing through a small opening; a short or soft whistle”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A sudden expulsion of air from the mouth; a quick puff or slight gust, as of air or smoke.
- noun A glimpse; a hasty view. [Prov. Eng.]
- verb To throw out in whiffs; to consume in whiffs; to puff.
- verb To carry or convey by a whiff, or as by a whiff; to puff or blow away.
Etymology [OE. weffe vapor, whiff, probably of imitative origin; cf. Dan. vift a puff, gust, W. chwiff a whiff, puff.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “whiff”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details