[
US
/ˈhwɪf, ˈwɪf/
]
[ UK /wˈɪf/ ]
[ UK /wˈɪf/ ]
NOUN
- a short light gust of air
- a lefteye flounder found in coastal waters from New England to Brazil
- a strikeout resulting from the batter swinging at and missing the ball for the third strike
VERB
-
perceive by inhaling through the nose
sniff the perfume -
utter with a puff of air
whiff out a prayer -
drive or carry as if by a puff of air
The gust of air whiffed away the clouds -
smoke and exhale strongly
whiff a pipe
puff a cigar - strike out by swinging and missing the pitch charged as the third
How To Use whiff In A Sentence
- Several other recent transfers have been accompanied by a strong whiff of controversy.
- The servants disappeared as if they were whiffs of smoke blown away by the wind.
- So avoiding the whiff of scandal enveloping me back home, let me introduce you to the rest of my competitors.
- Over the course of the year, he's almost hit on the head by a sparrowhawk, gets a whiff of "bad badger breath" when three cubs cannon into his lap, and watches two stoats massacre a screaming leveret, their normally creamy bibs "the colour of a slaughterman's apron". A Year in the Woods: The Diary of a Forest Ranger by Colin Elford
- Most would agree that the spuds would carry the faint whiff of moral complicity. Times, Sunday Times
- I knew I caught a whiff of something flammable in the office air Friday afternoon when a cacophony of squawking arose from a neighboring borough of Cubeville.
- There's a distinct whiff of anthropological research in the respectful view of men in pubs and stoking furnaces. Times, Sunday Times
- In Liverpool there is a sulphurous whiff of rebellion - bitter talk, alarming to some, of direct action.
- During shooting there was all occasional whiff of smoke at the rear of the cylinder and examination of the fired cases found them covered with soot from end to end.
- I leaned over him and caught a whiff of his subtle cologne.