Word of the Day Archive
Saturday July 10, 2010
snuff \SNUHF\
, verb:
1. To extinguish or suppress.
2. To cut off or remove the snuff of (candles, tapers, etc.).
noun:
1. The charred or partly consumed portion of a candlewick.
2. A preparation of tobacco, either powdered and taken into the nostrils by inhalation or ground and placed between the cheek and gum.
verb:
1. To draw in through the nose by inhaling.
Derek Jeter bashed Duensing's sixth pitch into the bullpen, then almost single-handedly made the run hold up with a spectacular play to snuff a second-and-third Twins threat, and the Yankees won for the 10th time in their last 11 games against the Twins.
-- Phil Miller, "Twins do everything right but win", FoxSportsNorth.com, May 2010
They augur misgovernment at a distance; and snuff the approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze.
-- Edmund Burke, Second Speech on Conciliation with America
The verb form of snuff has acquired layers of meaning through time: "to cut or pinch off the burned part of a candle wick," is an adaptation from the noun snoffe, the "burned part of a candle wick." The sense "to die" stems from the 1800s, and "to kill" appears in the 1930s, as in a snuff-film.
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for snuff