Also 5–6 snoffe, 6–7 snuffe. [f. SNUFF sb.1 LG. snuppen, G. schnuppen, are used as in sense 1.]
1. trans. To free (a candle, wick, etc.) from the snuff, by pinching or cutting this off, or removing it with a special instrument.
c. 1450. in Aungier, Syon (1840), 367. To lyghte and quenche the tapers and candles, and snoffe them.
1465. Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.), 492. Item, the same day my master bowt a snoffer to snoffe wyth candeles.
1530. Palsgr., 724/1. Snoffe the candell, I can nat se to write els.
1573. R. Lever, in Luckombe, Hist. Printing (1771), 111. The first lighteth the candle … and the second doth but snuff it.
1652. N. Culverwel, Lt. Nature, I. ii. (1661), 9. Some unskilful ones, while they go about to snuff the Candle,… put it out.
1691. T. Birch, Life Boyle, B.’s Wks. 1772, I. p. cxxxiv. When the candles are newly snuffed and so the light increased.
1753. Hanway, Trav., III. xxxiii. (1762), I. 151. In the middle of the room … was one large wax-candle; which they snuffed with scissers.
1793. Phil. Trans., LXXXIV. 100. The candle being occasionally snuffed when it appeared to stand in need of it.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 316. The candle or lamp … should have a thick wick, which should be snuffed clean.
1841. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, x. John … placed a pair of … candlesticks on the table, and snuffed the lights they held.
1887. T. A. Trollope, What I remember, I. i. 26. Two tallow candles, requiring to be snuffed by snuffers lying in a little plated tray.
absol. 1637. Heywood, Pleas. Dial., Wks. 1874, VI. 321. To cleare the taper, if you snuffe too deepe, Out goes the light.
b. fig. To make clearer or brighter; to purge.
1574. Hellowes, Gueuara’s Fam. Ep. (1577), 355. It shall not be ouermuch … euerie weeke … once or twice to purge and snuffe the soule.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 348. The ministers of Christ must be … throughly snuffed from all affections of the flesh.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., I. v. 22. By exact definitions first snuffed, and purged from ambiguity.
a. 1715. Halifax, On C’tess Dowager of ***, 5. Mopsa … Sets up for charming, in her fading days; Snuffs her dim eyes to give one parting blow.
c. To suppress temporarily. rare–1.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, I. x. 33. The Babylonish captivity did onely snuffe Iudah for seventy years.
2. With out: † a. To remove by snuffing. Obs.
c. 1430. Wycliffite Bible, Exod. xxv. 38. Where tho thingis, that ben snottid [v.r. snuffid] out, ben quenchid.
b. To extinguish, put out; to cause to go out or disappear from sight.
1687. Miége, Gt. Fr. Dict., II. To snuff out the Candle.
1818. Byron, Juan, XI. lx. ’Tis strange the mind, that fiery particle, Should let itself be snuff’d out by an article.
1841. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, iii. Slight yellow specks, that seemed to be rapidly snuffed out one by one.
1890. Science-Gossip, XXVI. 271. During these occultations the light of the star is instantaneously snuffed out, as it were, when overtaken by the moon’s limb.
c. To eclipse, efface, wipe out.
1852. Col. Hawker, Diary (1893), II. 340. I hope to see the Minié snuffed out, no matter by whom so long as he is an honest Englishman.
1873. C. M. Davies, Unorthodox London, I. 46. At first the attempt was made to ‘snuff out’ ‘The Sling and the Stone.’
1874. L. Stephen, Hours in Libr. (1892), II. v. 149. A silly coxcombry to be … snuffed out by the worldly cynicism of the new generation.
3. intr. With out: To die. slang or colloq.
1864. Slang Dict., 239. Snuff out, to die.
1895. A. C. Bicknell, Trav. N. Queensland, xxi. 186. The old man was very feeble, and looked like snuffing out before he had completed his story.
b. With it: = prec. slang.
1885. Sims, Rogues & Vagabonds, iv. 21. Josh Heckett isn’t going to snuff it just for a crack on the head.
1896. Daily News, 26 March, 6/4. I have the pleasure to inform you that your mother-in-law snuffed it.
