different between whiff vs breeze

English

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /w?f/

• Rhymes: -?f

Etymology 1

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

whiff (plural whiffs)

1. A waft; a brief, gentle breeze; a light gust of air
2. An odour carried briefly through the air
   • 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room 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 […]

3. A short inhalation or exhalation of breath, especially of smoke from a cigarette or pipe.
4. (figuratively) A slight sign of something; a glimpse.
   • 2012, Ben Smith, Leeds United 2-1 Everton [1]

     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.

   • 2012, Frank Underwood, House of Cards

     I can tell you first-hand that we are dealing with a regime that is not being forthright and will seize upon the faintest whiff of trepidation. This is a test to see how far they can push us before we breake.

5. (baseball) A strike (from the batter’s perspective)
6. (golf) An attempted shot that completely misses the ball.
7. The megrim, a fish: Lepidorhombus boscii or Lepidorhombus whiffiagonis.

Derived terms

• anglefin whiff
• horned whiff
• sand whiff
• Veracruz whiff
• whiffy

Synonyms

• (a movement of air): puff, waft
• (a brief odour): sniff

Translations

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To waft; to throw out in whiffs.
   • 1918, Charles Wellington Furlong, "Climbing the Shoulders of Atlas", in Harper's Monthly Magazine, page 433:

     […] to face the same bitter, westerly wind which searched our marrow as it tore over the world. It whiffed by us steam and sulphurous vapors from the caldron […]

2. To carry or convey by a whiff, or as by a whiff; to puff or blow away.
   • 1620, Ben Jonson, News from the New World Discovered in the Moon

     Old Empedocles, […] who, when he leaped into Etna, having a dry, sear body, and light, the smoke took him, and whift him up into the moon.

3. (colloquial) To have or give off a strong, unpleasant smell.
4. (transitive) To sniff.
   • 1891, "A Grain of Gold", in The Arena, page 631:

     [He], going farther away, whiffed at the pleasant odor of the grape blooms, waved his hand to the roses, in farewell, perhaps, lifted his face […]

5. To consume in whiffs; to puff.
   • 1914, Eva Emery Dye, The Conquest: The True Story of Lewis and Clark, page 90:

     There was silence as they whiffed at the council pipes. Then a tall chief arose and glanced at the handful of whites and at his own three hundred along the walls of the council house.

6. To miss:
   1. (intransitive, baseball) To strike out.
   2. (golf) To miss the ball completely.
   3. (slang) To attempt to strike and miss, especially being off-balance/vulnerable after missing.
7. (slang) To fail spectacularly at a task.
8. (slang, dated, transitive) To kill; to assassinate.
   • 1944, William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, Jules Furthman, The Big Sleep (screenplay)

     The trouble is he wasn't alone when you whiffed him.

Translations

Adjective

whiff (comparative more whiff, superlative most whiff)

1. (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.

Translations

Derived terms

• whiffle

Etymology 2

Related to whip.

Verb

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

1. To fish with a handline.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b?i?z/
• Rhymes: -i?z

Etymology 1

From the earlier (nautical) term brise, brize (“breeze”), from Middle English brees (“wind”). Ultimate origin obscure.

Variously supposed to derive from a Germanic source like Saterland Frisian Briese (“breeze”), West Frisian brys (“a cool wind”), Dutch bries (“breeze”), early Dutch brysen (“to blow cool and fresh”), or from Spanish brisa (“northeast wind”).

The earliest attestations are in Middle English brees (1460), Catalan brisa, and Italian brezza (all in 15th century), with Spanish (1504) and Portuguese briza (16th century) following closely after. The aforementioned Dutch cognates and French brise, however, are attested later than the term in English. The only internal hypothesis for any of those languages is a corruption of Old Occitan bisa (“strong wind”), which is not widely accepted.

Compare also Albanian breshër (“hail”).

Alternative forms

• brize (obsolete)
• briess (obsolete)

Noun

breeze (plural breezes)

1. A light, gentle wind.
   • 1793, William Wordsworth, An Evening Walk

     Into a gradual calm the breezes sink.

   • Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.

2. (figuratively) Any activity that is easy, not testing or difficult.

3. (cricket) Wind blowing across a cricket match, whatever its strength.
4. Ashes and residue of coal or charcoal, usually from a furnace. See Wikipedia article on Clinker.
5. An excited or ruffled state of feeling; a flurry of excitement; a disturbance; a quarrel.

6. A brief workout for a racehorse.

Synonyms

• see also Thesaurus:wind
• cakewalk, cinch, doddle, piece of cake, walk in the park, walkover; see also Thesaurus:easy thing

Coordinate terms

• (gentle wind): gale, hurricane, storm

Derived terms

• breezen

Translations

See also

• breeze block
• Wikipedia article on the Beaufort scale

Verb

breeze (third-person singular simple present breezes, present participle breezing, simple past and past participle breezed) (intransitive)

1. (usually with along) To move casually, in a carefree manner.
2. (weather) To blow gently.
3. To take a horse on a light run in order to understand the running characteristics of the horse and to observe it while under motion.

Translations

References

Etymology 2

From Middle English brese, from Old English br?osa, variant of Old English brimsa (“gadfly”), from Proto-Germanic *bremus? (“gadfly”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?erem- (“to make a noise, buzz, hum”). Cognate with Dutch brems (“horsefly, warblefly”), German Bremse (“gadfly, horsefly”), Danish bremse (“gadfly, horsefly”), Swedish broms (“gadfly, horsefly”). Related also to Middle English brimse (“gadfly”), French brize (“gadfly”), Old English bremman (“to rage, roar”), Latin frem? (“roar, snort, growl, grumble”). See also bream.

Alternative forms

• breese
• brize

Noun

breeze (plural breezes)

1. A gadfly; a horsefly; a strong-bodied dipterous insect of the family Tabanidae.

Verb

breeze (third-person singular simple present breezes, present participle breezing, simple past and past participle breezed)

1. (intransitive) To buzz.

Anagrams

• beezer