subs. (old).—The drainings of a glass; HEEL-TAPS (q.v.).
1641. BRATHWAITE, The Penitent Pilgrim, xxxiii. Those very SNUFFS which your excess procured, would have been sweet drops to many poor thirsty souls, who for want of drink have fainted.
Verb.—To be testy, easily offended: also TO TAKE SNUFF, or TO SNUFF PEPPER: see PEPPER. Whence IN SNUFF = in dudgeon; TO GIVE SNUFF = to reprimand, to rebuke, to scold; SNUFFY = (1) offended, and (2) = drunk (BEE); as subs. SNUFF = a PET (q.v.).—(GROSE).
1584. ROBINSON, Pleasant Delights [ARBER], 35. For huffing and SNUFFING deserveth blame.
1593. C. HOLLYBAND, Dictionarie. To spite, to anger, to take a matter IN SNUFFE.
1598. SHAKESPEARE, 1 Henry IV., i. 3, 41.
| Who therewith angry, when it next came there | |
| Took it IN SNUFF. |
1601. JONSON, The Poetaster, ii. 1. I take it highly IN SNUFF to learn how to entertain gentlefolks of you, at these years, i’ faith. Ibid. (1609), Epicœne, or the Silent Woman, iv. 2. He went away IN SNUFF.
1611. Bible, Authorised Version, Mal. i. 13. Ye said, what a weariness is it, and ye have SNUFFED at it.
1625. JOSEPH HALL, Thanksgiving Sermon, 29 Jan. Do the enemies of the church rage, and SNUFF, and breathe nothing but threats and death?
16[?]. Roxburgh Ballads [B.M., C20, f. 8, 407], ‘The Scolding Wife.’
| They was not so soon out of the Quire | |
| Ee’r she begun TO SNUFF. |
1630. TAYLOR (‘The Water Poet’), Laugh and be Fat, 69. Yet no mans lines but mine, you TAKE IN SNUFFE.
1672. A Cap of Gray Hairs for a Green Head, 122. If IN SNUFF and distaste you may fling away from such re infecta, a little patience and good words may do your business, and send you away with what you come for.
1694. SIR R. L’ESTRANGE, Æsop, 185. Jupiter took SNUFF at the Contempt, and Punish’d him for’t.
1891. LEHMANN, Harry Fludyer at Cambridge, 30. He rather GAVE ME SNUFF about my extravagance, but I was prepared for that.
PHRASES.—UP TO SNUFF = not to be deceived, WIDEAWAKE (q.v.), KNOWING (q.v.); TO SNUFF OUT = to silence, settle, annihilate; TO SNUFF IT = to die: see ALOFT. See SNEEZE-LURK.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. UP TO SNUFF. Synonymous with the above phrase [‘Up to slum’]; and is often rendered more emphatic by such adjuncts as ‘UP TO SNUFF and twopenny,’ ‘UP TO SNUFF, and a pinch above it.’
1811. POOLE, Hamlet Travestie, ii., 1.
| He knows well enough | |
| The game we’re after: Zooks, he’s UP TO SNUFF. |
1823. BYRON, Don Juan, xi. 60.
| ’Tis strange the mind, that fiery particle, | |
| Should let itself be SNUFFED OUT by an Article. |
1830. W. T. MONCRIEFF, The Heart of London, ii. 1. I nose: UP TO SNUFF.
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Some Account of a New Play,’ i. 295. Lady A., who is now what some call ‘UP TO SNUFF.’
1837. DICKENS, Pickwick Papers, xii. Queer start that ’ere, but he was one too many for you, warn’t he? UP TO SNUFF and a pinch or two over—eh?.
1838. WILLIAM WATTS (‘Lucian Redivivus’), Paradise Lost, 39.
| And being ‘UP TO SNUFF’ in this, | |
| He turns his bottom, and says “Kiss.” |
1876. C. HINDLEY, ed. The Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, 233. Having travelled all my lifetime, was better ‘UP TO SNUFF’ than an ordinary man would be at fifty.
1885. G. R. SIMS, Rogues and Vagabonds. Josh Heckett isn’t going to SNUFF IT just for a crack on the head.
1887. Daily Telegraph, 15 Feb. They will be SNUFFED OUT; nobody will listen to them before seven, or after nine.
1891. J. NEWMAN, Scamping Tricks, 120. Now it is only fair to say the assistant knew his book and was UP TO SNUFF.
