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Dec 12, 2009
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Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—S

Snuff

Up to snuff. Wide awake, knowing, sharp; not easily taken in or imposed upon; alive to scent (Dutch, snuffen, to scent, snuf; Danish, snöfte).

Took it in snuff
—in anger, in huff.

“You'll mar the light by taking it in snuff.”

Shakespeare: Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2.

“Who, ... when it next came there, took it in snuff.” —Shakespeare: 1 Henry IV., i. 3.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
Snuff Out
Snowdrop
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