Meaning of snuff-and-butter | Babel Free

Definitions

An individual of mixed racial heritage.

dated, derogatory, ethnic, slur

Examples

“Your sweetheart fell in love⟳ with you in the Port of London, and presently afterwards with another pretty woman in the Port of Calcutta, which is generally the way with poor Tom Bowling. She was a snuff-and-butter, because at Calcutta they are as plenty as blackberries; and when young, snuff-and-butter is not to be despised, having bright eyes; […]”

“In the event of the beasts failing us, we took also ten of the best of those Strathmuir men who had accompanied us on the sea-cow trip⟳, to serve⟳ as bearers when it became necessary. It cannot be said that these snuff-and-butter fellows—for most, if not all of them had some dash of white blood in their veins—were exactly willing volunteers. Indeed, if a choice had been left to them, they would, I think⟳, have⟳ declined this adventure.”

“They form⟳ a shouting, gesticulating, chaffering, laughing, quarrelling, noisy throng, their skins varying from lightest olive through snuff and butter and café-au-lait to coal-black, their bright-coloured clothes making a constantly changing kaleidoscope around the market square.”

CEFR level