As good as what was expected, required, or demanded; satisfactory or adequate. A: "How's your dinner?" B: "It's up to snuff with this place's usual standard." It's nice to see that Jenny's work is up to snuff again lately.

Fig. as good as is required; meeting the minimum requirements. Sorry, Tom. Your performance isn't up to snuff. You'll have to improve or find another job. My paper wasn't up to scratch, so I got an F.

If something or someone is up to snuff, they are as good as they should be or as they normally are. The technology in these companies simply isn't up to snuff. Note: You can also say that you bring or get someone or something up to snuff or that someone or something comes up to snuff. The hamburgers didn't come up to snuff.

Satisfactory in performance, health, or some other respect. This term, which probably has something to do with the once popular habit of taking snuff, dates from at least 1800, but its origin has been lost. “He knows well enough the game we’re after; zooks he’s up to snuff,” wrote John Poole in his play Hamlet Travestie (1811), meaning that the character was wide awake and sharp. “Up to snuff, and a pinch or two over,” wrote Dickens (Pickwick Papers, 1836), meaning that something was more than satisfactory. Along with the use of snuff, the term may be dying out.