English

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a cigarette in an ashtray

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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    Borrowed from French cigarette, from cigare, from Spanish cigarro + diminutive suffix -ette.

    Pronunciation

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    • IPA(key): /ˈsɪ.ɡə.ɹɛt/, /sɪ.ɡəˈɹɛt/
    • Audio (US):(file)
    • Audio (UK):(file)
    • Rhymes: -ɛt
    • Hyphenation: cig‧a‧rette

    Noun

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    cigarette (plural cigarettes)

    1. A small cigar consisting of tobacco or another substance, wrapped up in a thin roll with paper, intended for smoking.
      • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 46:
        No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or otherwise his man would be there with a message to say that his master would shortly join me if I would kindly wait.
      • 1956, Delano Ames, chapter 7, in Crime out of Mind[1]:
        He rose to light my cigarette, then sank back into his wicker chair contentedly. The tea was weak, but not cold, thanks to the hot-plate.
      • 1989 January 27, Stephen Fry et al., “Doctor Tobacco”, in A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Season 1, Episode 3:
        Tobacconist: Right. I want to try you on a course of these: one twenty times a day. Have you taken them before?
        Patient: Um, what is it?
        Tobacconist: It's a simple nicotinal arsenous monoxid preparation taken bronchially as an infumation.
        Patient: Infumation?
        Tobacconist: Yes, you just light the end and breathe it.
        Patient: What, like cigarettes?
        Tobacconist: You know them then. Actually, it's a bit hard to admit but they're basically an herbal remedy... A leaf originally from the Americas, I believe, called tobacco.
        Patient: But medicated?
        Tobacconist: Medicated? No.
        Patient: These are ordinary cigarettes?
        Tobacconist: That's right.
        Patient: But they're terribly bad for you, aren't they?
        Tobacconist: I hardly think I would be prescribing them if they were bad for you.
        Patient: Twenty a day?
        Tobacconist: Yes, ideally moving on to about thirty or forty.
      • 2008, Thomas A. Liuzzo, One Last Cigarette: Memoirs of a 5-pack-a-day Smoker!, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 20:
        Grandma has an occasional cigarette, as well as Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Julie, and our kids give them crap about it.

    Synonyms

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    Translations

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    Verb

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    cigarette (third-person singular simple present cigarettes, present participle cigaretting, simple past and past participle cigaretted)

    1. (transitive, slang, rare) To give someone a cigarette, or to light one for them.
      Could someone cigarette me?

    See also

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    French

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    Etymology

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      From cigare +‎ -ette.

      Pronunciation

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      Noun

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      cigarette f (plural cigarettes)

      1. cigarette
        Synonyms: clope, sèche, garo
        Hyponyms: Gitane, Gauloise
        Meronyms: filtre, papier, tabac

      Derived terms

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      Further reading

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