Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a cigar, or tobacco.

[1599		Jonson Every Man Out of his Humour characters: Shift, a thread-bare shark [...] His chief exercises are, taking the whiff, squiring a cockatrice].
1825		J. Neal Brother Jonathan II 48: ‘How’d ye like a whiff or two, afore we get in – to settle our breakfast?’ [...] producing a handful of tobacco.
1827		Egan Anecdotes of the Turf, the Chase etc. 271: [...] to take a whiff and a whet with a friend.
1838		Crim.-Con. Gaz. 6 Oct. 49/1: The blissful group take their whiff, their wet and their grub.
1840		Era (London) 9 Aug. 5/2: After taking ‘a hasty glass and half-a-dozen whiffs’ he discovered the bird had flown.
1858		F.W. Farrar Eric I 149: Will you have a whiff, Monty?
1878		Birmingham Dly Post 27 Apr. 6/7: William Bailey (14) [...] was sent to gaol for a month [...] for stealing thirty packets of ‘Cope’s Whiffs’.
1886		Sporting Times 10 Apr. 1/5You can sit down and have a whiff or two and a glass: .
1910		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Longevity Jujubes’ Sporting Times 23 July 1/3: A reply re Longevity Jujubes / From the man with the twopenny ‘whiff.’.
1914		Tacoma Times (WA) 14 Jan. 4/4: Lord Ballyrot in Slangland [...] I wouldn’t [...] if I was dying for a whiff.

2. (also wiff) a puff of a pipe, cigar or cigarette.

1840		Flash Mirror 4: Dabbs are let here at low prices, with a whiff at a dudee, a pint of swipes, and a chaunt.
1869		Sportsman (London) 2 Feb. 2/1: Notes on News [...] [T]here are people who gratify their ‘whiffs’ underground, [...] a commission agent was charged [...] with having smoked on the John’s Wood line.
1874		‘A.P.’ [Arthur Pember] Mysteries and Miseries 323: [They] started on a cruise through the corridors, the one to borrow a pipe, the other to beg a ‘smoke of tobacco.’ Returning with their prizes, they retired to a quiet corner, where they enjoyed alternately ‘a whiff and a spit’ .
1895		Coburg Leader (Vic.) 24 Aug. 1/4: As he sits there doing his booking, / And having a wiff at his pipe.
1896		Regiment 25 July 261/2: I always smoked a clay pipe and after a few whiffs before ‘lights out,’ usually placed the pipe under my cot on the floor.
1904		Le Poer A Modern Legionary 26: [T]he Spaniard [...] he had to be satisfied with half-a-dozen puffs from every pipe in the room. [...] At the same time I too have had to do with the whiffs when I longed for a pipeful of my own .

3. (drugs) a puff of opium.

1870		Dickens Edwin Drood (1873) 207: She seats herself beside him, ready to refill the pipe. After inhaling a few whiffs in silence, he doubtingly accosts her with, — ‘Is it as potent as it used to be?’.
1894		Mirror of Life 27 Jan. 7/4: Celestials would entice young girls [...] into their dens and induce them to try the pipe. A few whiffs would place them beyond all sense of realisation.
1947		(con. late 19C) A. McLeod Pigtails and Gold Dust 156: The opium smokers, and in all stages of stupor [...] endeavoring to get one more full ‘whiff.’.

4. an inhalation of cocaine.

1900		in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) I 132: He learned it near Stuttgart, Arkansas, about 1900. [...] ‘Jaybird, jaybird, bless my soul, / Did you ever see a nigger with a white ass-hole? / Oh baby, take a whiff on me.’.
1925		Odum & Johnson Negro and His Songs (1964) 193: O honey! take a whiff on me.
1952		E. Brown Trespass 161: Come on. Take a whiff on me.
1964		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 101: Give me a sniff or another little whiff, / I’ll tell it all — you win.

5. a puff of cannabis.

1941		L. Green ‘Knockin’ Myself Out’ 🎵 I got one stick / Give me a match / And let me take a whiff quick / I’m gonna knock myself out.
1983		Totally True Diaries of an Eighties Roller Queen 🌐 5–26 Sept. Everyone was smoking up. Marijuana could be smelled throughout the entire cafeteria [...] I think I got a wiff too many because I was acting really weird.

6. (US drugs) cocaine.

1981		D. Jenkins Baja Oklahoma 94: ‘Hey, man, know where I can score some whiff?’ Nobody talks like that but a narc’ .
1992		Eble Campus Sl. Apr.