whiffed

Verb

whiff (third-person singular simple present whiffs, present participle whiffing, simple past and past participle whiffed)

1. (transitive) To carry or convey (something) by, or as by, a whiff or puff of air; to blow, puff, or waft away.
   • There are in all but three vvayes of going thither [to the moon]. […] [The] third, Old Empedocles vvay; vvho vvhen he leaped into Ætna, having a drie ſeare bodie, and light, the ſmoake took him and vvhift him up into the Moone, vvhere he lives yet vvaving up and dovvne like a feather, all foot and...1620 January 17 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Benjamin Jonson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Newes from the New World Discover’d in the Moon. A Masque, […]”, in The Workes of Benjamin Jonson. The...
2. (transitive) To say (something) with an exhalation of breath.
   • [H]e ſat ſolitary and penſive vvith his pipe—looking at his lame leg—then vvhiffing out a ſentimental heigh ho! vvhich mixing vvith the ſmoak, incommoded no one mortal.1765, [Laurence Sterne], chapter XXVI, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume VIII, London: […] T. Becket and P. A. Dehondt, […], →OCLC, page 119
3. (transitive) To inhale or exhale (smoke from tobacco, etc.) from a cigarette, pipe, or other smoking implement; to smoke (a cigarette, pipe, etc.); to puff.
   • VVhat pleaſure tak'ſt thou in that breath, vvhich dravvs & vvhiffs perpetuall fears?a. 1645 (date written), Fr[ancis] Quarles, “The Plague-affrighted Mans Danger. Meditat[ion] XVI.”, in Judgement and Mercie for Afflicted Souls: Or Meditations, Soliloquies, and Prayers, London: […]...
4. (transitive) To breathe in or sniff (an odour); to smell.
   • Come, come, my deare, and let us both retire / And vvhiffe the dainties of the fragrant fields: […]1635, Fra[ncis] Quarles, “Canto VII. Cant[icles] VII. XI.”, in Emblemes, London: […] G[eorge] M[iller] and sold at at Iohn Marriots shope […], →OCLC, book IV, stanza 1, page 209
5. (archaic, dated, slang, transitive) To shoot (someone) with a firearm; hence, to assassinate or kill (someone).
   • Arms are the one thing needful: with arms we are an unconquerable man-defying National Guard; without arms, a rabble to be whiffed with grapeshot.1837, Thomas Carlyle, “Storm and Victory”, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume I (The Bastille), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book V (The Third Estate), page 187
6. (US, slang, transitive) Of a pitcher: to strike out (a batter); to fan.

See all 34 meanings of whiff