snuffbox

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a small, often ornamental box used for carrying powdered tobacco taken through the nose

   He opened the silver snuffbox and offered a pinch to his guest.

A late seventeenth-century compound of snuff + box. Snuff here means powdered tobacco inhaled through the nose; because it was carried in small personal containers, snuffboxes often became elaborate objects of jewelry or decorative art.

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