cigarette
- 01 A2 Elementary
n.a thin roll of paper filled with tobacco that you light and smoke.
n.a small cylinder of finely cut tobacco leaves rolled in thin paper, typically including a filter at one end.
Simple“He stepped outside the restaurant to smoke a cigarette before the main course arrived.”
In context“Public health campaigns have significantly reduced the social acceptability of smoking a cigarette in enclosed public spaces over the last few decades.”
- 02 C2 Proficiency
v.to give someone a cigarette or light one for them.
v.to provide another person with a cigarette or to facilitate the lighting of one. Transitive use is restricted to specific informal contexts.
Simple“He asked his friend to cigarette him since he had left his pack at home.”
In context“In the old noir film, the protagonist would cigarette his partner before discussing the details of the heist.”
UsageThis verb use is extremely rare and usually found in specific regional dialects or older slang.
Teacher's tipLearners should treat 'cigarette' almost exclusively as a noun; using it as a verb will likely confuse most native speakers.
Etymology tree Latin cicādader. Vulgar Latin *cicār(r)a Spanish cigarra? Spanish cigarrobor. French cigare French -ette French cigarettebor. English cigarette Borrowed from French cigarette, from cigare, from Spanish cigarro + diminutive suffix -ette. By surface analysis, cigar + -ette.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.