Dictionary

up to snuff en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (slang) Adequate; of acceptable quality; satisfying an appropriate standard.
   • About 40% of U.S. counties lack full-time public-health service. . . . Many registered hospitals are not up to snuff. 1945 January 15, “State of the Nation's Health”, in Time:
2. (UK, dated, slang) Mentally alert, shrewd, savvy.
   • "Dombey," says the Major, with appropriate action, "that is the hand of Joseph Bagstock: of plain old Joey B. . . . a rough and tough, and possibly an up-to-snuff, old vagabond." 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, chapter 31, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC:
   • But the people, who prided themselves on being what they called üppen zie schnuffen, or, as we should say, "up to snuff," and equal to every occasion, had already seen a way out of the difficulty. 1904, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 7, in William Tell Told Again:

Forms

Relateds

pass muster · cut the mustard · not bad · make the grade

Synonyms

up to par · up to scratch