up to snuff

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up to snuff (comparative more up to snuff, superlative most up to snuff)

1. (slang) Adequate; of acceptable quality; satisfying an appropriate standard.
   • 1945 January 15, “State of the Nation's Health”, in Time:

     About 40% of U.S. counties lack full-time public-health service. . . . Many registered hospitals are not up to snuff.

2. (chiefly British, dated, slang) Mentally alert, shrewd, savvy.
   • 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, chapter 31, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     "Dombey," says the Major, with appropriate action, "that is the hand of Joseph Bagstock: of plain old Joey B. . . . a rough and tough, and possibly an up-to-snuff, old vagabond."

   • 1904, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 7, in William Tell Told Again:

     But the people, who prided themselves on being what they called üppen zie schnuffen, or, as we should say, "up to snuff," and equal to every occasion, had already seen a way out of the difficulty.

• up to par, up to scratch

• cut the mustard
• make the grade
• pass muster
• not bad