💨 A light smell ⚾ To miss hitting ⚾ A strikeout 👃 To smell briefly 🌬️ To blow gently 🚬 To smoke and exhale 🐟 A flat fish

whiff

9.6

A flat sea fish with both eyes on one side, found in the Atlantic

noun
/wɪf/

Specialized

: lenguado

Examples

People tolerate it, but I don't think anyone is walking into a fish market, taking a deep whiff, and going, 'Ohhh yeah, that's the stuff!.'

Blog text (34)
The local fisherman caught a rare whiff while out at sea off the coast.
In the aquarium, we marveled at the unique whiff swimming gracefully by.
During our fishing trip, we spotted a vibrant whiff moving near the reef.

Idioms

a whiff of

23 4.4

A small, faint smell you notice briefly

to catch a whiff

4 5.1

To notice a small smell of something for a short time

Compounds

whiff of perfume

1 3.0

A short soft smell of perfume in the air

horned whiff

Specialized

9.9

A flat fish with small horn-like bumps on its head that lives on sandy sea bottoms in warm Atlantic waters

quick whiff

5.4

A short breath you take to smell something

skew-whiff

9.9

Not straight or level but turned a little to one side

Surface Forms

whiff singular

whiffs plural

Etymology

Whiff as the name of a flat fish probably comes from an old local name, but a helpful way to remember it is to think of this small sea fish as a quick, light catch — a little 'whiff' of the sea.