snuff out


Extinguish, put a sudden end to, as in Three young lives were snuffed out in that automobile accident. This usage alludes to snuff in the sense of “put out a candle by pinching the wick,” an area itself called snuff from the late 1300s on. [Mid-1800s]

Words Nearby snuff out

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

How to use snuff out in a sentence

  • Pelosi and Reid will work to snuff out any legislation that could force Obama to take unpopular stands.

    Freshmen Hit the Hill | Samuel P. Jacobs | January 4, 2011 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • To snuff out a candle accidentally entails the fate of not getting married in the same year.

  • The bookseller was moved: he took a huge pinch of snuff out of his waistcoat pocket, and mused a moment.

    Night and Morning, Complete | Edward Bulwer-Lytton
  • I snuff out the candles, on the supposition that this is perhaps a case of phosphorescence; but I never perceive anything.

    Mysterious Psychic Forces | Camille Flammarion
  • As he now appeared in his doorway, towelling his hands, Wemmick got on his great-coat and stood by to snuff out the candles.

    Great Expectations | Charles Dickens
  • I'd lash the beggar to a tree and leave him to snuff out for hisself.

    The Boss of Taroomba | E. W. Hornung