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Glimpse vs Whiff - What's the difference?

glimpse | whiff |

In transitive terms the difference between glimpse and whiff

is that glimpse is to see or view briefly or incompletely while whiff is to sniff.

As an adjective whiff is

having a strong or unpleasant odor.

glimpse

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A brief look, glance, or peek.
  • :
  • *(Samuel Rogers) (1763-1855)
  • *:Here hid by shrub wood, there by glimpses seen.
  • *
  • *:Selwyn, sitting up rumpled and cross-legged on the floor, after having boloed Drina to everybody's exquisite satisfaction, looked around at the sudden rustle of skirts to catch a glimpse of a vanishing figure—a glimmer of ruddy hair and the white curve of a youthful face, half-buried in a muff.
  • A sudden flash.
  • *(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • *:Light as the lightning glimpse they ran.
  • A faint idea; an inkling.

    • Verb

    (glimps)
  • To see or view briefly or incompletely.
    • I have only begun to glimpse the magnitude of the problem.
  • To appear by glimpses.
    • (Drayton)

    Synonyms

    * perceive, notice, detect, spot, catch sight of

    whiff

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A waft; a brief, gentle breeze; a light gust of air
  • An odour carried briefly through the air
  • * (rfdate)
    • everyone has always known, widely promiscuous heterosexual men have, as I say, a whiff of the bathhouse about them.
  • * 1922 , (Virginia Woolf), Chapter 2
    • A whiff of rotten eggs had vanquished the pale clouded yellows which came pelting across the orchard and up Dods Hill and away on to the moor
  • A short inhalation of breath, especially of smoke from a cigarette or pipe
  • * Longfellow
    • The skipper, he blew a whiff from his pipe, / And a scornful laugh laughed he.
  • (figurative) a slight sign of something; a glimpse
  • * 2012 , Ben Smith, Leeds United 2-1 Everton [http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19632366]
    • This was a rare whiff of the big-time for a club whose staple diet became top-flight football for so long - the glamour was in short supply, however. Thousands of empty seats and the driving Yorkshire rain saw to that.
  • (baseball) A strike (from the batter’s perspective)
  • The megrim, a fish .

    • Synonyms

    * puff * sniff * waft

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To waft.
  • To sniff.
  • (baseball) To strike out.
  • (slang) to attempt to strike and miss, especially being off-balance/vulnerable after missing.
  • To throw out in whiffs; to consume in whiffs; to puff.
  • To carry or convey by a whiff, or as by a whiff; to puff or blow away.
  • * Ben Jonson
    • Old Empedocles, who, when he leaped into Etna, having a dry, sear body, and light, the smoke took him, and whiffed him up into the moon.

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (colloquial) Having a strong or unpleasant odor.
  • * 2002: Jim Rozen, Way oil in rec.crafts.metalworking
    • Whoo boy that gear oil is pretty whiff . If you actually do this, spend the extra money for the synthetic gear oil as it will not have as bad a sulfur stink as the regular stuff.

    Derived terms

    * whiffle