Green’s Dictionary of Slang

smelly; also fig. use.

1899		Kipling ‘An Unsavoury Interlude’ in Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 81: ‘Well-nourished old lady, ain’t she?’ said Stalky. ‘How long d’you suppose it’ll take her [i.e. a dead cat] to get a bit whiff in a confined space?’.
1926		J.N. Loch Fourteen thumbs of St Peter 295: Ugh, the dirt! Aren’t the people whiffy!
1936		R.F. Adams Cowboy Lingo 217: Joe Carter [...] described this Indian as being ‘considerable whiffy on the lee side.’.
1949		M. Hardy Skyo 209: Humm, I said to myself, maybe I’ve been fired, because they’ve finally decided I’m a little too whiffy of skunk.
1958		Encounter X 68: [W.H. Auden] notes that he has always found the atmosphere of [Twelfth Night] ‘a bit whiffy.’ He finds the use to which Shakespeare puts ‘O Mistress Mine’ rather shocking.
1966		H. Poter Paper Chase 100: Barber-shops with faded yellow-and-blue-striped veranda posts, and whiffy hamburger-shops.
1971		R.F. Adams Cowman Says It Salty 46: [He] complained that he ‘was considerable whiffy on the lee side.’ And speaking of things smelly [etc].
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 12: This Whiffy Malone didn’t smell anything like the Whiffy Maloney Sergeant [...] Grindle had shared a long and close acquaintanceship with over the years.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 82: The pale, whiffy beatniks, with their earnest little beards and their resentful eyes.
1999		Indep. Rev. 26 July 1: It is very whiffy. There are flies everywhere.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 410: He hugs me too hard — it’s painful like — and a bit wiffy.
2009		R. Milward Ten Storey Love Song 56: She kisses his whiffy lips.
2010		D. Viggiano Stockings & Cellulite 87: Your socks are whiffy all the time.
2021		C. Hammer Opal Country 286: ‘I hear it [i.e. a building] was getting a bit whiffy’.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 817: I couldn’t really imagine what Poor Tragic Bethany could be smelling like... oh I forced myself to try to imagine the whiffiness.