shufti

plural shuftis · alternative shufty · alternative shoofti

1. UKslangA brief glance.

   "Caucasus mountains," said the driver. "I think. Let's have a shufti at the map."

   1992, Tom Holt, Tall Stories, Orbit, published 2004, page 276

   2 more examples

   "Perkins, we are asking you to be that one man. I want you to lay down your life, Perkins. We need a futile gesture at this stage. It will raise the whole tone of the war. Get up in a crate, Perkins, pop over to Bremen, take a shufti, don't come back. Goodbye, Perkins. God, I wish I was going too."

   1961, Peter Cook, Beyond the Fringe (AfterMyth of War)

   2005, J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Raincoast Books ; Bloomsbury, page 431, "When we come face to face with one [a ghost] down a dark alley we're going to be having a shufti to see if it's solid, aren't we, we're not going to be asking, 'Excuse me, are you the imprint of a departed soul?'"

   Synonyms: glance