WHIFF • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Whiff

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/wɪf/ /hwɪf/ Listen

noun

Whiff n.

A sudden expulsion of air from the mouth; a quick puff or slight gust, as of air or smoke. "But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword The unnerved father falls." "The skipper, he blew a whiff from his pipe, And a scornful laugh laughed he."

A glimpse; a hasty view. (Prov. Eng.)

(Zool.) The marysole, or sail fluke.

verb

Whiff v. t. (past & past part. whiffed; pres. part. whiffing)

To throw out in whiffs; to consume in whiffs; to puff.

To carry or convey by a whiff, or as by a whiff; to puff or blow away. "Old Empedocles,... who, when he leaped into Etna, having a dry, sear body, and light, the smoke took him, and whiffed him up into the moon."

Whiff v. i. To emit whiffs, as of smoke; to puff.

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Etymology of 'Whiff'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Whiff" Quotes from Famous Books

... begins a word, the aspirate h precedes w in pronunciation: as in what, whiff, whale; pronounced hwat, hwiff, hwale, w having precisely the sound of oo, French ou. In the following words w is silent:—-who, ...

— The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing - A Manual of Ready Reference • Joseph Triemens

... are dying for a whiff now!" chuckled Ditson. "I know you are. I got along a whole day, but it was a day of ...

— Frank Merriwell at Yale • Burt L. Standish

... nursery. They were smiling. Neither of them could think of a thing to say, but a curious mingling of odors told their story for them. The freshness of the clean, scarcely-dried, kalsomine, the faint tinge of smoke from the bit of fire, the delicious soapy cleanliness and a wholesome whiff of barley broth floated out into the dusty hallway to the little person on the stairs. She looked through the doorway and saw clean walls, creamy yellow; windows that glistened, a glowing fire, a tiny table spread for ...

— Little Miss By-The-Day • Lucille Van Slyke

... been silent for some time—that is, for half a minute, which seems a long time under such circumstances—when Mrs. Lancaster's voice broke the stillness. "Oh for a whiff of mountain-air or a sea-breeze!" she said. "I came to spend two weeks with you, dear Mrs. Brantley, and I have spent a month—who ever did leave The Willows when they meant to do so?—but I really must be thinking of taking flight. Suppose we get up a party for the White Sulphur?—it is always ...

— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XII. No. 30. September, 1873 • Various

... enough. Morgan is with us every day, going betwixt Highgate and the Temple. Coleridge is absent but 4 miles, and the neighborhood of such a man is as exciting as the presence of 50 ordinary Persons. 'Tis enough to be within the whiff and wind of his genius, for us not to possess our souls in quiet. If I lived with him or the author of the Excursion, I should in a very little time lose my own identity, and be dragged along in the current ...

— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 5 • Edited by E. V. Lucas

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