puff of smoke
6
3.6
- noun
:
nube de humo
- You'll see a puff of smoke from my exhaust when I cut in the motor.
- vanish in a puff of smoke
- disappear in a puff of smoke
- little puff of smoke
Is it like bursting into a puff of smoke and brief flame?
- Is it like bursting into a puff of smoke and brief flame?
- It will render earth a burnt cinder before it vaporizes us as we go up in a puff of smoke into the vacuum of space.
Examples
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I got here through a great, big magical puff of smoke.
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And there's a puff of smoke comin' from the grassy knoll.
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Then one day it could all be gone, in one big puff of smoke and ball of fire.
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There was a flash of light and a puff of smoke.
Fiction book (1991) -
But look, there's a puff of smoke.
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A puff of smoke sets off the fire alarm in the rafters.
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At the first puff of smoke, she must take action to determine if there may be a conflagration.
Academic text (1998) -
The water sizzles with electricity and the rats go up in a puff of smoke.
Fiction book (1995) -
Narrator: Suddenly, there is a puff of smoke in front of Vivien, and out of it steps Merlin, the court wizard.
Fiction book (1998) -
A puff of smoke appeared as the candle went out suddenly.
Synonyms
60
3.2
A short puff of air that carries a smell
24
1.5
A short light burst of air, smoke, or breath
3
8.8
A small puff of air carrying a faint smell
1
3.8
A small burst of white smoke from a chimney or engine
How Thick
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a small, quick cloud or burst of smoke' is directly derivable from the constituents: 'puff' (a brief light gust or small emission) combined with 'smoke' (a visible plume), with 'of' serving the simple linking function. This is a straightforward compositional noun phrase found cross-linguistically and contains no idiomatic shift, so a B1 learner who knows the component words should understand it.
Etymology
The phrase puff of smoke comes from the image of a small, quick cloud of smoke, like when a magician disappears. So it describes something that appears for a moment or 'disappears suddenly'.