cigarette

Pluralcigarettes

Formscigarettes, cigaretting, cigaretted

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A small roll of tobacco or another substance wrapped in thin paper, meant to be lit and smoked.

   He stubbed out his cigarette before stepping inside.

   The smell of cigarettes lingered in the old taxi.

   Similarsmoke

   Note

   At heart a French diminutive: cigare, itself from Spanish cigarro, plus the suffix -ette, so the word began life as "little cigar." In use it keeps company with a small set of verbs: you smoke, light, or have a cigarette. Polite offers run "light my cigarette," and "an occasional cigarette" is how a light smoker's habit gets described.

2. 2
   verbslangtransitive

   To give someone a cigarette, or to light the one they are holding for them.

   He quietly cigaretted the stranger who had asked for a light.

   She would cigarette anyone on the crew who looked like they needed one.

   Note

   The noun pressed into service as a verb, and a rare slang one. Its object is the person who gets the cigarette, not the cigarette itself: "Could someone cigarette me?" It inflects regularly as cigaretted and cigaretting. Because so few listeners will have met it, it lands as casual or playful. In ordinary speech, "give me a cigarette" or "light my cigarette" says the same thing without the wink.

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