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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

snuff.

Finely ground or pulverized tobacco (or other plant derivative) intended for use by being sniffed or snorted into the nose.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/snʌf/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/snɐf/Australia, New-Zealand/snʊf/Northern-England
  1. Finely ground or pulverized tobacco (or other plant derivative) intended for use by being sniffed or snorted into the nose.

    countable · uncountable
  2. Fine-ground or minced tobacco, dry or moistened, intended for use by placing a pinch behind the lip or beneath the tongue.

    countable · uncountable
  3. A snort or sniff of fine-ground, powdered, or pulverized tobacco.

    countable · uncountable
  4. The act of briskly inhaling by the nose; a sniff, a snort.

    countable · uncountable
  5. Resentment or skepticism expressed by quickly drawing air through the nose; snuffling; sniffling.

    countable · uncountable
  6. Snot, mucus.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
  7. Smell, scent, odour.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
Where this word comes from

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”)).

verb/snʌf/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/snɐf/Australia, New-Zealand/snʊf/Northern-England
  1. To inhale through the nose.

    transitive
  2. To turn up the nose and inhale air, as an expression of contempt; hence, to take offense.

    intransitive
  3. To drug (a person) with a mixture of snuff and beer.

    Ireland · UK · obsolete · slang · transitive
Where this word comes from

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”)).

noun/snʌf/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/snɐf/Australia, New-Zealand/snʊf/Northern-England
  1. The burning part of a candle wick, or the black, burnt remains of a wick (which must be periodically removed).

    countable · uncountable
  2. Leavings in a glass after drinking; heeltaps.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
  3. A murder.

    countable · slang · uncountable
  4. A video showing a real, non-acted murder.

    attributive · countable · slang · uncountable
  5. Erotica focusing on a character's murder.

    countable · informal · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English snoffe, snuffe, of uncertain origin. Compare Middle Dutch snuf, snof (“snuff”), Dutch sneuvelen (“to die in battle”).

verb/snʌf/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/snɐf/Australia, New-Zealand/snʊf/Northern-England
  1. To extinguish a candle or oil-lamp flame by covering the burning end of the wick until the flame is suffocated.

  2. To trim the burnt part of a candle wick.

    obsolete
  3. To snuff out; to extinguish; to put out; to kill.

    slang
Where this word comes from

From Middle English snuffen, snoffen, from the noun (see Etymology 2 above).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.