Meanings
plural cheroots
- A cigar with square-cut ends.
It was after nine now, and the room, scented with the acrid smoke of Westfield's cheroot, was stifling hot.
1934, George Orwell, chapter 2, in Burmese Days5 more examples
The lowest classes of Europeans, as also of the natives, and, indeed, most of the officers of country-ships, frequently smoke cheroots, exactly corresponding with the Spanish segar, though usually made rather more bulky. However fragrant the smokers themselves may consider cheroots, those who use hookahs, hold them to be not only vulgar, but intolerable!
1810, Thomas Williamson, The East India Vade-Mecum, volume I, London: Black, Parry & Kingsbury, page 4991853, The Lancet, Vol. II, The Analytical Sanitary Commission. Cigars and their Adulterations, pp. 444-445, https://books.google.ca/books?id=_ZJMAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false Purchased—of a Hawker, in Whitechapel-road. ¶ These cheroots were made up of two twisted wrappers or layers of thin brown paper, while the interior consisted entirely of hay, not a particle of tobacco entering into their composition. ¶ It appears that about the neighbourhood of Whitechapel, the sale of spurious cheroots of this kind constitutes a regular business.
1892, Rudyard Kipling, "Mandalay", in Rudyard Kipling's Verse, Garden City: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1922, http://www.bartleby.com/364/220.html ’Er petticoat was yaller an’ ’er little cap was green, / An’ ’er name was Supi-yaw-lat—jes’ the same as Theebaw’s Queen, / An’ I seed her first a-smokin’ of a whackin’ white cheroot, / An’ a-wastin’ Christian kisses on an ’eathen idol’s foot:
In distinguished despair he lighted a cheroot, and for Aaron Gadd that was no trivial gesture. Both his father and Deacon Popplewood […] contended that smoke issuing from the mouth was a little too much like the flames of Tophet for sound Congregational practice.
1948, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 5, in The God-Seeker, New York: Popular Library, page 291986, Heinrich Böll, "The Unknown Soldier" in The Casualty, translated by Leila Vennewitz, New York and London: W. Norton & Co., 1989, p. 97, I had a long Virginia cheroot between my lips, it tasted deliciously bitter and mild, while in my back the goo of pus and blood and shreds of cloth and hand-grenade splinters went on simmering away.
Origin
- Tamilசுருட்டு“roll (of tobacco)”
- Portuguesecharuto“cigar”
- Englishcheroot
Probably from Portuguese charuto (“cigar”), from Tamil சுருட்டு (curuṭṭu, “roll (of tobacco)”).
More words from Portuguese, Tamil
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bengali চুরুট
- চুরুট (curuṭ)cigar
Chinese Mandarin 方頭雪茄煙 /方头雪茄烟
- 方頭雪茄煙 /方头雪茄烟 (fāngtóu xuějiā yān)cigar
Czech doutník (s ořezanými konci)
- doutník (s ořezanými konci)cigar
Finnish cheroot-sikari
- cheroot-sikaricigar
French cheroot, stogie
- cherootcigar
- stogiecigar
Hindi चुरुट
- चुरुट (curuṭ)cigar
Indonesian cerutu
- cerutucigar
Punjabi ਚੁਰਟ
- ਚੁਰਟ (curaṭ)cigar
Russian сига́ра, черу́т
- сига́раcigar
- черу́т (čerút)cigar
Tamil சுருட்டு
- சுருட்டு (curuṭṭu)cigar
Thai บุหรี่พม่า
- บุหรี่พม่า (bù-rìi-pá-mâa)cigar
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with cheroot
Anagrams
Cite this entry
cheroot. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cheroot
“cheroot.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cheroot. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cheroot,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cheroot.
Source: cheroot on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.