[f. WHIFF sb.1]
1. intr. To blow with a whiff or slight blast; to move with or make the sound of this. Chiefly in vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. ii. 545. When through their green boughs whiffing winds do whirl With wanton puffs their waving locks to curl. Ibid. (1608), II. iv. Schism, 620. A sudden whirl-winde, with a whiffing Fire. Ibid., Decay, 652. The whiffing flashes of this Sword so quick.
1645. Z. Boyd, Holy Songs, in Zion’s Flowers (1855), App. 12/2. Their head on neck could not abide, off chop’t with whiffing steele.
1851. Walshe, Dis. Lungs, 93. The character of the murmurs is hollow, whiffing, and moderately metallic.
1866. J. Macgregor, Rob Roy on Baltic, x. The whiffing of the strong wings of the wild goose.
1890. Daily News, 12 Dec., 3/1. A raw and biting breeze whiffing about his grey hairs.
b. trans. To utter with a whiff or puff of air.
1765. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, VIII. xxvi. Then whiffing out a sentimental heigh ho!
1889. ‘Mark Twain,’ Yankee Crt. K. Arth., xxvi. They crossed themselves, and whiffed out a protective prayer or two.
2. trans. To drive or carry by or as by a whiff; to puff or blow away, etc.
1601. W. Percy, Cuckqueanes & Cuck. Err., I. ii. (Roxb.), 11. I take him by the sleeue,… bid him looke to himself, Then round as a Jugler’s boxe, whiffe his vpper vestment, and away. Ibid., I. iii. 16. Neither keene knife, nor yet Thumbe, May whiff him by slit or by numbe.
1615. Sylvester, Job Triumph., II. 395. How oft, as Straw before the winde, are They, And as the Chaff with Tempest whift away?
1620. B. Jonson, News from New World, Wks. (1641), 42. The smoake took him and whift him up into the Moone.
1657. Farindon, Serm., v. 108. That joy which is … raised as a Meteor out of dung and is whiffed up and down by every wind and breath.
1812. W. Tennant, Anster F., I. xii. John Frost … Whiff’d off the clouds that the pure blue conceal’d.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. V. ii. And then his ‘sincere attachment,’ how was it scornfully whiffed aside! Ibid., vi. A rabble to be whiffed with grapeshot.
1916. Blackw. Mag., Jan. 59/1. Troops would not always remain in the open to be whiffed out of existence by shrapnel.
b. intr. To move with or as with a puff of air.
1686. Goad, Celest. Bodies, I. xvi. 105. The Index hath whiffed round all the points of the Compass.
1889. Stevenson, Master of Ballantrae, ii. I have sought to stay myself … against what looked to be a solid trunk, and the whole thing has whiffed away at my touch like a sheet of paper.
3. trans. To puff out tobacco-smoke from a pipe, etc.; hence, to smoke. (With the smoke or the pipe, etc., as object.) Also fig.
1616. R. C., Times’ Whistle, v. 2218. Every … skip-iacke now will have his pipe of smoke, And whiff it bravely till hee’s like to choke.
1617. Brathwait, Sol. Jov. Disput., etc., 171. These smokers of our Age; they whiffe me [Time] out in fume.
1628. Mad Pranks Robin Goodf. (Percy Soc.), 34. She whift her pipe, she drunke her can.
1646. Quarles, Judgem. & Mercy, Medit. 16. What pleasure tak’st thou in that breath, which draws and whiffs perpetuall fears?
1756. Mrs. Calderwood, in Coltness Collect. (Maitland Cl.), 166. He put his pipe in the cheek next him, and whifed it in his face.
1859. Meredith, R. Feverel, xxii. Richard … found him furtively whiffing tobacco.
1867. Good Cheer, 7. These formal toasts … having been all drunk, the men whiffed their pipes.
b. absol. or intr.
1602. Dekker, Satirom., C 4 b. Morrow, Captaine Tucca, will you whiffe this morning?
1639. Junius, Sin Stigmatized, 269. They are bound … to be powring in at their mouths, or whiffing out at their noses.
1713. Tyldesley, Diary (1873), 88. I found honest Tho. Barton very harty and ffree, but the 2 Wadsworths only whiffed.
1714. trans. Joutel’s Jrnl. Voy. Mexico (1719), 148. Then they made us all smoke round, and every one of them whiff’d in his Turn.
1862. H. A. Kennedy, Waifs & Strays, 205. Luxuriously whiffing away at my after-breakfast cheroot.
† 4. trans. To imbibe, drink (liquor). Also fig.
1609. Dekker, Gull’s Horn-bk., iv. 18. Hee … that would striue to fashion his legges to his silke stockins, and his proud gate to his broad garters, let him whiffe downe these obseruations.
1650. Trapp, Comm. Num., vi. 20. The most generous wine in Lovain and Paris, is known by the name of vinum theologicum: the divines (those Sorbonists) do so whiffe it off.
a. 1693. Urquhart’s Rabelais, III. xvii. 141. She whiffed off a … good Draught.
5. To inhale, sniff; also intr. to smell, sniff.
1635. Quarles, Embl., IV. vii. (1718), 213. Let us both retire, And whiff the dainties of the fragrant field. Ibid. (1646), Sheph. Oracles, x. Wks. (Grosart), III. 231/1. Which like a Sun in this our Orbe, Whiffes up the Belgick fumes.
1854. R. S. Surtees, Handley Cr., lviii. The pack … now whiffing with curious nose round the hollies, and now trying up the rides.
Mod. (slang). What a horrid smell! Can’t you whiff it?
b. intr. To emit an unpleasant odor. slang.
1899. Kipling, Stalky, iii. 79. Then she’ll whiff. Golly, how she’ll whiff!
Hence Whiffing vbl. sb.1 (also attrib.) and ppl. a.; also Whiffer, one who whiffs.
1591–1866. [see sense 1].
c. 1614. Tobacco-whiffer [see TOBACCO 3].
1632. Lithgow, Trav., X. 435. The Alehouse is their Church…, their singing of Psalmes the whiffing of Tobacco.
1811. Sporting Mag., XXXVIII. 191. Opening his tobacco-box, soon commenced his whiffing operation.
