whiffs 1 of 2

noun

plural of whiff
as in hints
an almost imperceptible sign of something even a whiff of appreciation for everything I've done for her would have been nice

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

whiffs

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of whiff
as in smells
to become aware of by means of the sense organs in the nose whiffed the pot of chili on the stove and announced that he was staying for dinner

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of whiffs
Noun
Wacha registered 22 called strikes and 16 whiffs, per Baseball Savant. — Kansas City Star, 29 Aug. 2026 Matthews generated eight swings-and-misses with his slider and produced multiple whiffs with five other pitch types. — Dan Hayes, New York Times, 25 Aug. 2026 Lynch’s massive draft whiffs feel like harmless clerical rounding errors next to his good work in handling all the off-the-field stuff that lands on his desk. — Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 24 Aug. 2026 On windy days, whiffs of smelting iron blew in from a factory, just beyond a set of train tracks, that produced ingots for the rest of the United States. — Rozina Ali, New Yorker, 21 Aug. 2026 Although Gausman’s four-seam fastball (13 called strikes) and splitter (15 whiffs) yielded some productive results, the veteran left too many hittable pitches around the plate. — Meghan Montemurro, Chicago Tribune, 19 Aug. 2026 Errors and whiffs are briskly airbrushed away by the unending march of content. — Aidan McLaughlin, Vanity Fair, 19 Aug. 2026 Getty Images The MLB best home run bets have been in one of the longest droughts of the year, with eight straight whiffs on home run props. — Josh Shepardson, Forbes.com, 3 Aug. 2026
Verb
Consider that a positive sign for a club that struggled last season with strikeouts and whiffs at its lowest points. — Cody Stavenhagen, New York Times, 28 Apr. 2026 Some mention of bonus bets that whiffs of free money. — Max Klaver, Miami Herald, 10 Apr. 2026 World Baseball Classic Team USA whiffs Team USA lost 3-2 to Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic title game Tuesday night. — Nicole Fallert, USA Today, 18 Mar. 2026 Both whiffs only further reminded me what a top-tier star Clooney used to be, and these staid recent efforts help meta-textually burnish Jay Kelly’s initial setup. — David Sims, The Atlantic, 14 Nov. 2025 Given Eldridge’s offensive profile, there will likely always be a fair amount of strikeouts and whiffs in his game. — Justice Delos Santos, Mercury News, 21 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for whiffs
  1. hints
  2. smells
  3. touches
  4. sniffs
  5. glimmers
  6. inhales
  7. flickers
Noun
  • The cuisine was also noteworthy, a generous choice of cocktails, wines, and cuisine with hints of contemporary English inspiration, while avoiding being British stodgy.
    — Michael Verdon, Robb Report, 28 Aug. 2026
  • Warsh is unlikely to reveal his approach before the task forces report but at Jackson Hole the whole world will be looking for hints regarding his plans to reshape the Fed.
    — Paul Wachtel, The Conversation, 28 Aug. 2026
Definition of hints
Verb
  • Fadal brought up her own phantom smells during a recent podcast conversation with Andrea Donsky, a nutritionist who’s written about and conducted research on this symptom.
    — Maggie Ryan, Flow Space, 26 Aug. 2026
  • The pungent smells of pot smoke and someone else’s urine compete with the dank smell of the canal.
    — Tribune Content Agency, Baltimore Sun, 25 Aug. 2026
Definition of smells
Noun
  • While some of the color contrasts do articulate planar shifts, such as the candy-stripe lips (red for upper, pink for lower), many of the touches are arbitrary splotches that neither bolster a shape nor set another off.
    — Zachary Fine, New Yorker, 31 Aug. 2026
  • The vocalist and Orlando band After 5 perform original R&B and neo-soul with touches of jazz.
    — Patrick Connolly, The Orlando Sentinel, 31 Aug. 2026
Definition of touches
Verb
  • Luz inserts the construction pole; Susana sniffs.
    — Jacob Whitehead, New York Times, 26 June 2026
  • The look of sheer repressed, stymied rage/laughter on Raph’s face when Paul sniffs the Oreos instead is one of the episode’s biggest laughs.
    — Tasha Robinson, Vulture, 16 June 2026
Definition of sniffs
Noun
  • There are glimmers of success in almost every advanced country, including the United States, at agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service, which has finally begun to modernize its woefully out-of-date technology.
    — Jennifer Pahlka, Foreign Affairs, 18 Aug. 2026
  • But take a closer look and the report actually provides glimmers of hope.
    — TerDawn DeBoe, Forbes.com, 29 July 2026
Definition of glimmers
Verb
  • The child inhales for four counts, holds for four counts, exhales for four counts and holds again for four counts.
    — Samantha Agate, Sacbee.com, 10 Aug. 2026
  • The chemical is particularly tough on the human respiratory system and, depending on how much a person inhales, MMA can cause everything from sore throats and cough to dizziness, nausea and, at the highest levels, damage to the nervous system, Kleinman said.
    — Sierra van der Brug, Oc Register, 23 May 2026
Definition of inhales
Noun
  • The water around the device and the rock above it shield the detector from the glare of cosmic radiation, allowing the flickers of less common particle interactions to shine through.
    — James Dinneen, Quanta Magazine, 7 Aug. 2026
  • Since then, there were brief flickers from the likes of Paul Robinson or Rob Green, but there was a natural ceiling as to whom Leeds fielded as their goalkeeper when outside the top division of English football.
    — Beren Cross, New York Times, 24 July 2026
Definition of flickers

Browse Nearby Words

whiffing
whiffs
while
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Cite this Entry

“Whiffs.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/whiffs. Accessed 1 Sep. 2026.

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