Wow...I always thought it came about as a milder form of son of a b....

And for those of us who didn't know: Snuff is a smokeless tobacco made from ground or pulverised tobacco leaves. It is inhaled or "snuffed" into the nasal cavity, delivering a swift hit of nicotine and a lasting flavoured scent (especially if flavouring has been blended with the tobacco). Was that the same as "take a powder"? Or was the powder something else?

Wow did I learn something from this! I always thought "take a powder" was like "take a chill pill" and it referred to snuff or smelling salts or other things they'd use to calm down "hysterical" women in Victorian times. So much for what I know!

Wash one’s hands When you wash your hands of something, you have dismissed it from your attention and plan to pay it no further heed. The expression comes from the action of Pontius Pilate (Matthew 27:24): “When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.”