whiffet U.S.
(ˈhwɪfɪt)
Also whiffit, wiffet.
[? f. whiff n.1 + -et1.]
1. (Also whiffet dog.) A small dog.
| 1801 Olio (Philad.) 41 (Thornton) Who heeds the Whiffit's bark, when tempests howl? 1848 Ladies' Repository VIII. 315 The best protection to a house, with a family in it that can be named—that is, a little, barking, noisy, cowardly, whiffet dog. 1879 J. Burroughs Locusts & Wild Honey 30 The king-bird will worry the hawk as a whiffet dog will worry a bear. |
2. transf. An insignificant person; a whipper-snapper. colloq. (Cf. whifling.)
| 1839 Congress. Globe Jan., App. 105/3 There was not a Whig whiffet in the country but could ask [etc.]. 1876 Whitman Specimen Days 1 Sept., Writ. 1902 IV. 157 This gusty-temper'd little whiffet, man. 1883 L. A. Lambert Notes on Ingersoll xxii. 200 We hold ourselves responsible to him, and to all the glib little whiffets of his shallow school. |
¶The sense ‘a little whiff or puff’ given in Webster 1864 is not authenticated.