cigarette
(sɪgəˈrɛt)
Also (chiefly U.S.) cigaret.
[dim. of cigar: in F. cigarette.]
1. a. A small cigar made of a little finely-cut tobacco rolled up in thin paper, tobacco-leaf, or maize-husk.
| 1842 L. S. Costello Pilgr. Auvergne I. 332 The habit of smoking cigarettes..is quite la grande mode of late with certain French ladies. 1843 I. F. Romer Rhone, etc. I. 252 The beggars in the streets have paper cigars (called cigarettes) in their mouths. 1883 Lloyd Ebb & Flow II. 118. 1897 G. B. Shaw Our Theatres in Nineties (1932) III. 117 Presenting every lady in the audience with a locket and every gentleman with a cigaret case. 1934 ― Simpleton of Unexpected Isles ii. 47 His poor little secret vice of cigaret smoking. 1945 Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 361 The English..are slow to follow American example in such forms as cigaret and etiquet. 1968 Chicago Tribune 9 July i. 12/3 He smoked three or four packs of cigarets a day. 1968 S. Challis Death on Quiet Beach iv. 43 They lit cigarets and Stenfalt looked at him over a blue spiral of smoke. |
b. Med. A similar roll of the leaves of medicinal plants or other medicated substances for smoking.
| 1876 Bartholow Mat. Med. (1879) 7 The most effective method of treating an asthmatic paroxysm is by means of a cigarette containing various narcotic substances. 1881 Syd. Soc. Lex. |
2. attrib. and
Comb., as
cigarette-box,
cigarette-butt,
cigarette-case,
cigarette catcher,
cigarette-end,
cigarette-factory,
cigarette-filler,
cigarette habit,
cigarette-holder,
cigarette-machine,
cigarette-maker,
cigarette-making,
cigarette-merchant,
cigarette-paper,
cigarette-smoke,
cigarette-smoker,
cigarette-smoking,
cigarette-tobacco, etc.;
cigarette-laden adj.;
cigarette beetle = tobacco beetle;
cigarette card, a picture card inserted by the makers in a packet or box of cigarettes;
cigarette coupon [
coupon 2], a voucher inserted in a packet of cigarettes;
cigarette girl, a girl who makes or sells cigarettes;
cigarette heart, a condition of the heart induced by excessive smoking of cigarettes;
cigarette lighter, a mechanical apparatus for lighting a cigarette;
cigarette machine, a machine that manufactures or dispenses cigarettes;
cigarette paper, paper or a paper in which cigarettes or a cigarette is rolled;
cigarette picture = cigarette card;
cigarette tobacco, tobacco specially adapted for cigarette making.
| 1891 Cent. Dict., Tobacco beetle..Also called *cigarette-beetle. 1895 Comstock Study Insects 553 The Cigarette Beetle, Lasioderma serricorne..is a serious pest in tobacco manufactories, infesting the dried tobacco-leaves and the manufactured products. 1896 J. B. Smith Econ. Entom. 193 The Lasioderma serricorne, popularly known as the ‘tobacco-’ or ‘cigarette-beetle’. 1959 E. F. Linssen Beetles 2nd Ser. 64 Lasioderma serricorne..is red in colour... The beetle is popularly known as the Cigarette or Tobacco Beetle. |
| 1890 Peel City Guardian 11 Jan. 3/5 The smoker's set of cigar and *cigarette box. 1909 Galsworthy Silver Box 111, Theft of a silver cigarette box. |
| 1923 J. Dos Passos Streets of Night iii. 90 They tramped up a creaking stair littered with *cigarette butts. 1931 New Statesman 16 May 418 At every few steps he bent down quickly, picked up a cigarette-butt from the pavement, and put it into his pocket. |
| 1902 Little Folks 159/1, 2d. a dozen for *cigarette cards (Ogden's Guinea Gold). 1926 Punch 29 Sept. 345 Got any cigarette-cards, lady? |
| 1883 B. Potter Let. in B. Webb My Apprenticeship (1926) iii. 157, I produced my *cigarette-case and offered the company some ‘Welsh cigars’. 1939 T. S. Eliot Fam. Reunion ii. iii. 128 He thinks he left his cigarette-case on the table. |
| 1921 Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §469 *Cigarette catcher; cigarette machine receiver, gathers finished cigarettes from cigarette machine. |
| 1906 Bazaar, Exch. & Mart Suppl. 1335/3 Black Cat *cigarette coupons wanted. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 693 Soll und Haben by Gustav Freytag..cigarette coupon bookmark at p. 24. 1932 L. Golding Magnolia Street iii. vi. 540 If any of those watches were the reward paid for an industrious accumulation of cigarette coupons, he replaced them. |
| 1889 Tobacco Apr. 126/1 Waxing *cigarette-ends..has for its object preventing the end of the cigarette from sticking to the lips. 1893 Graphic 4 Feb. 110/2 The..dearth of..cigarette-ends did not seem to depress him at all. 1902 Westm. Gaz. 24 Sept. 10/2 Someone dropped a lighted cigarette-end in the hay. 1933 J. Cary Amer. Visitor ii. 26 Cottee spat his cigarette-end at a bubble on the stream. |
| 1884 Pall Mall G. 5 Sept. 6/2 The largest *cigarette factory in the world is said to be that of La Honradez, Cuba. |
| 1916 A. Bennett Lion's Share vii. 51 The adventure of the *cigarette girl. 1918 Cigarette girl [see cloak-room b]. 1968 L. Deighton Only when I Larf xi. 133 A cigarette girl came past and he clicked his fingers at her and asked for matches. |
| 1914 Evening News 10 Oct. 2/7 Our officers..brought the *cigarette habit back with them from the Crimea, where they learned it from the Russians. |
| 1908 Daily Chron. 29 Jan. 7/2 Witness examined his heart and found no organic disease; it was a ‘*cigarette heart’. |
| 1879 M. W. Hungerford Airy Fairy Lilian II. xv. 90 Enough meerschaum pipes, and *cigarette holders, and tobacco stands to stock a small shop. 1921 A. Huxley Crome Yellow xvii. 179 An immensely long cigarette-holder projected..from her face. |
| 1905 Daily Chron. 17 July 8/6 The *cigarette-laden air of the sensuous room. |
| 1915 Scotsman 26 Jan. 5/3 Colonel Thompson, of the Black Watch, asks for tinder *cigarette lighters. 1929 M. de la Roche Whiteoaks ix. 135 ‘The very thing for him!’ she exclaimed to Alayne, energetically snapping her cigarette-lighter. 1962 Which? (Car Suppl.) Oct. 138/1 Cigarette lighter would not eject properly. |
| 1878 Sci. Amer. XXXVIII. 411/1 *Cigarette machine. 1951 M. McLuhan Mech. Bride 106/1 They kick the cigarette machine. |
| 1889 Tobacco June 189/1 (heading) Messrs. Philip Morris and Co. and their *cigarette-makers. 1890 F. M. Crawford (title) A cigarette-maker's romance. 1894 Daily News 1 Oct. 5/3 The cigarette-makers' cramp, so well-known in the tobacco manufactories of Spain. 1897 Lippincott's Med. Dict., Cigar-makers' cramp or Cigarette-makers' cramp. Painful contraction of the flexors of the fingers, sometimes seen in cigar- and cigarette-makers. |
| 1909 Daily Chron. 24 Nov. 6/6 Before the war there was a *cigarette merchant..in Great Winchester-buildings. |
| 1860 Harper's Mag. Apr. 691/1 His notes were written on *cigarette-paper. 1901 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 13 July 100/1 For the purpose of selling..any cigarettes, cigarette paper, or any substitute for the same. 1958 J. R. Biggs Woodcuts 91 Cigarette Paper is a satisfactory though extremely thin white paper, for making prints by burnishing, but care must be taken not to tear the print. |
| 1902 Little Folks I. 158/1, 90 *cigarette pictures (not all different) to dispose of at 90 for 1s. 1944 B. Johnson As Much as I Dare 23 This collection yielded place to cigarette pictures. |
| 1900 E. Wharton Gift from Grave vi. 74 A mist of *cigarette smoke. 1918 A. Bennett Roll-Call i. iii. 44 The ruthless George, behind cigarette smoke. |
| 1886 Illust. Lond. News 2 Jan. 2/1 Passwords among *cigarette-smokers. |
| 1888 Tobacco Apr. 127/1 (heading) Why he quit *cigarette-smoking. 1906 Westm. Gaz. 10 Sept. 1/2 Cigarette-smoking was then [sc. in 1856] habitual in St. Petersburg. |
| 1905 in Daily Chron. 10 Oct. 6/2 The..manufacture of cigarettes or *cigarette tobacco. |