WHIFF
What does "WHIFF" mean?
A faint, brief smell carried on the air, or a quick puff of it.
Meanings
- A faint trace of a smell briefly caught. I caught a whiff of fresh bread from the bakery.
- A slight hint or trace of something abstract. There was a whiff of scandal about the deal. figurative
- A quick light gust or puff of air. A whiff of wind stirred the curtains.
- To swing and miss entirely, especially in baseball. He whiffed on the third pitch to end the inning. informal
Did you know?
- In baseball, to 'whiff' is to swing so hard you hit nothing but air - the word for catching a faint smell became the word for catching absolutely nothing.
Word origin
Probably imitative, echoing a quick puff of breath or air; the verb sense of 'miss entirely' arose in American baseball slang.
Remember it
WHIFF: the double F is like two quick sniffs of the air - ff, ff - catching a scent and losing it.
A little poem
A door swings open -
one breath of someone's kitchen,
then the street again.
haiku
Wordplay
- The batter and the cologne salesman had the same problem: both kept taking a big swing and coming up with nothing but a whiff.
What it teaches
A whiff is enough to know a thing is near; you don't always need the whole loaf to follow the smell.
Quick facts
What does WHIFF mean?
A faint, brief smell carried on the air, or a quick puff of it.
Is WHIFF a valid word?
Yes — WHIFF is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is WHIFF?
WHIFF has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does WHIFF come from?
Probably imitative, echoing a quick puff of breath or air; the verb sense of 'miss entirely' arose in American baseball slang.
What can WHIFF teach us?
A whiff is enough to know a thing is near; you don't always need the whole loaf to follow the smell.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.