His rugged, single-minded approach (forehand crosscourt, forehand crosscourt 1, 000 times) snuffs out Federer's style and versatility, rendering them frustratingly useless.

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Saturday's loss to Finland and now this defeat to Germany snuffs out any faint World Cup qualification hopes Wales may have harboured.

BBC: Wales 0-2 Germany

Goldsticker says his tontine annuity snuffs out the murder motive by using a large employee pool and paying out both interest and principal, so the last one alive doesn't get a huge windfall.

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Then, the musical references to classics like the final trio of "Der Rosenkavalier, " to signal renunciation of youth and love (there's even a nonsinging character called Sophie), and the orchestral passage after Tosca murders Scarpia, festooning the corpse with candles and a cross (here, the diva burns her photographs and then snuffs all the candles in her apartment).

WSJ: Prima Donna | La Traviata | New York City Opera Makes a Case for Its Own Demise | Opera Review by Heidi Waleson