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whiff

UK/ʍɪf/ US/wɪf/ fairly common informal slang us
noun (3) verb (5)

noun

1.
2.

a lefteye flounder found in coastal waters from New England to Brazil

3.

a strikeout resulting from the batter swinging at and missing the ball for the third strike

verb

1.

perceive by inhaling through the nose

  • “sniff the perfume”
Synonyms
2.

drive or carry as if by a puff of air

  • “The gust of air whiffed away the clouds”
3.

strike out by swinging and missing the pitch charged as the third

4.

smoke and exhale strongly

  • “puff a cigar”
  • “whiff a pipe”
Synonyms
5.

utter with a puff of air

  • “whiff out a prayer”

Origin

The noun is possibly: * 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 * partly onomatopoeic. 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 adj...

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.