Idiom
Up to snuff
If something is up to snuff, it is good enough and meets the expected standard.
How people use it
People most often use it in the negative (the report is not up to snuff) or with bring (we need to bring the kitchen up to snuff before we sell the house). It is informal and a little old-fashioned, but still common in American English. Up to par and up to scratch mean almost the same thing. In older British use, someone up to snuff was sharp and hard to fool, a sense now rarely heard.
Also said: not up to snuff, bring something up to snuff.
Examples
- The new cook's soup wasn't up to snuff, so the owner asked him to try again.
- Before the inspection, we cleaned the garage to bring it up to snuff.
- Leo's essay is finally up to snuff after three rounds of edits.
Where it comes from
Snuff is powdered tobacco sniffed through the nose, which was fashionable in the 1700s and 1800s. The phrase is first recorded in Britain in the early 1800s, when 'up to snuff' meant knowing and worldly, not easily fooled. One guess is that someone who could judge good snuff seemed experienced. The meaning 'good enough' came later and is now the main one.
Check yourself
1. If a manager says your work is not up to snuff, what does she mean?
Answer: It is not good enough yet. Up to snuff means meeting the expected standard, so not up to snuff means falling short.
2. Which sentence uses the idiom correctly?
Answer: The old bike's brakes weren't up to snuff, so Ana replaced them.. Brakes that do not meet the standard fit the idiom. The other sentences do not describe quality correctly.
Similar idioms
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