U.S. Also whiffit, wiffet. [? f. WHIFF sb.1 + -ET.]

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  1.  (Also whiffet dog.) A small dog.

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1801.  Olio (Philad.), 41 (Thornton). Who heeds the Whiffit’s bark, when tempests howl?

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1879.  J. Burroughs, Locusts & Wild Honey, 30. The king-bird will worry the hawk as a whiffet dog will worry a bear.

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  2.  transf. An insignificant person; a whippersnapper. colloq. (Cf. WHIFLING.)

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1839.  Congress. Globe, Jan., App. 105/3. There was not a Whig whiffet in the country but could ask [etc.].

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1876.  Whitman, Specimen Days, 1 Sept., Writ. 1902, IV. 157. This gusty-temper’d little whiffet, man.

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1883.  L. A. Lambert, Notes on Ingersoll, xxii. 200. We hold ourselves responsible to him, and to all the glib little whiffets of his shallow school.

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  ¶  The sense ‘a little whiff or puff’ given in Webster 1864 is not authenticated.

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