/sməʊk/, /smoʊk/, /smoːk/
OriginFrom Middle English smoke, from Old English smoca (“smoke”), probably a derivative of the verb (see below). Related to Dutch smook (“smoke”), Middle Low German smôk (“smoke”), dialectal German Schmauch (“smoke”).
- uncountableThe visible vapor/vapour, gases, and fine particles given off by burning or smoldering material.
“If those were the days, however, when steam was triumphant, they were also the days of smoke. Nowhere was this so apparent as at "Kings Cross (Suburban)" where, one after another, the Great Northern t”
“Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in Sout”
- colloquial, countableA cigarette.
“Can I bum a smoke off you?; I need to go buy some smokes.”
“2019, Idles, "Never Fight a Man With a Perm", Joy as an Act of Resistance.
I said I've got a penchant for smokes and kicking douches in the mouth / Sadly for you my last cigarette's gone out”
- colloquial, uncountableAnything to smoke (e.g. cigarettes, marijuana, etc.)
“Hey, you got some smoke?”
“ERCS Guard: Got a smoke? We're all out.”
- colloquial, countableAn instance of smoking a cigarette, cigar, etc.; the duration of this act.
“I lit a pipe and had a good long smoke, and went on watching.”
“I'm going out for a smoke.”
- figuratively, uncountableA fleeting illusion; something insubstantial, evanescent, unreal, transitory, or without result.
“The excitement behind the new candidate proved to be smoke.”
“I fed her a lot of smoke about a sheep station outside Adelaide and a big property in the high street with a glass front and ‘Thomas’ in lights. She didn’t believe me.”
- figuratively, uncountableSomething used to obscure or conceal; an obscuring condition; see also smoke and mirrors.
“The smoke of controversy.”
- uncountableA light grey color tinted with blue.
- slang, uncountableBother, trouble; problems; hassle.
“You better not be giving me no smoke.”
- countable, uncountableOpaque aerosol released on a battlefield, used e.g. to signal or to degrade enemy observation via smokescreen.
- countable, uncountablePollen scattered by a plant.
“There has been a great deal of smoke in the yew-trees this year. One day there was such a cloud that it seemed to be a fire in the shrubbery. […]”
“A gustful April morn / That puff'd the swaying branches into smoke.”
“[…] "fruitful cloud and living smoke" of pollen that rises from every spray. The two kinds of flowers are borne on separate trees and the resulting berries are pretty at all stages, and, when ripe, […”
- countable, uncountableMist, fog, or drizzle; water vapour, such as from exhalation into cold air.
“[…] steeds, whose lowdnes filled the aire with terrour, and whose breathes dimmed the sun with smoake, converted to delicate tunes and amorous glances?”
“You'll find that one of these days. If there's work ahead you ought to have sense enough not to knock smoke out of fresh horses before we begin.”
“[…] and a smoke of rain was drifting everywhere. In the thin drizzle the sheep were bleating among the dripping heather, and the birds were chattering and chirming in the shelter of the trees and bush”
- countable, slang, uncountableA fastball.
- countableA distinct column of smoke, such as indicating a burning area or fire.
“Should the commander of one column desire to communicate with the other, he raises three smokes simultaneously, which, if seen by the other party, should be responded to in the same manner.”
“[…] and we could not discern any settlement or any people, but we did see two smokes up-river in some thick groves of oak and cork and willows and other high trees, of a good thickness, resembling ash”
“In the evening haze, even the Calton Gaol took on something of the savage grandeur of a Doré drawing, and this was by no means spoilt by the rising smokes of North British engines in the ravine below.”
- Synonym of Burmilla.
- transitiveTo inhale and exhale the smoke from a burning cigarette, cigar, pipe, etc.
“He's smoking his pipe.”
“Smoking a pipe has gone out of fashion.”
“Olivia's dad smoked various brands when he was younger.”
- intransitiveTo inhale and exhale tobacco smoke.
“He used to drop into my chambers once in a while to smoke, and was first-rate company. When I gave a dinner there was generally a cover laid for him. I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he ”
“To Edward […] he was terrible, nerve-inflaming, poisonously asphyxiating. He sat rocking himself in the late Mr. Churchill's swing chair, smoking and twaddling.”
“Do you smoke?”
- intransitiveTo give off smoke.
“My old truck was still smoking even after the repairs.”
“Hard by a cottage chimney smokes.”
“But what struck me most, and at once, was the sharpness, the clear definition of everything-even the distant housetops view across the opposite roofs. And then I noticed that no chimney, large or smal”
- intransitiveOf a fire in a fireplace: to emit smoke outward instead of up the chimney, owing to imperfect draught.
- intransitiveOf tobacco: to give off or produce smoke (in a certain manner or of a certain type).
“"Damp tobacco," said Cripps, eyeing Limpet offensively as he threw down the challenge, "smokes unevenly. You'll admit that to start with."”
“"Dry tobacco burns even, and therefore smokes cool."”
- transitiveTo preserve or prepare (food) for consumption by treating with smoke.
“You'll need to smoke the meat for several hours.”
- transitiveTo dry or medicate by smoke.
“After opening one of the hives from the back, he smoked the bees to calm them and to drive the queen toward the front of the hive.”
- obsolete, transitiveTo fill or scent with smoke; hence, to fill with incense; to perfume.
- obsolete, transitiveTo make unclear or blurry.
“Smoke your bits of glass,
Ye loyal Swine, or her transfiguration
Will blind your wondering eyes.”
- intransitive, slangTo perform (e.g. music) energetically or skillfully.
“The horn section was really smokin' on that last tune.”
- slangTo beat someone at something.
“We smoked them at rugby.”
“Super Macho Man: 'I DON'T SMOKE... BUT TONIGHT I'M GONNA SMOKE YOU!'”
“"He can weasel out if^([sic]) it." Ibanez massaged her knuckles. "He can say Couch welshed on a deal, and didn't show, and that's why Karen got got. It isn't conclusive. I have another thing I can lay”
- slang, transitiveTo snuff out; to kill, especially with a gun.
“He got smoked by the mob.”
“Ordnancemen stenciled bombs with “greetings” on behalf of friends and loved ones back home or slogans playing on beer and cigarette advertisements, like “To Muammar: For all you do, this bomb's for yo”
“I had never met my father, and Precious's daddy had gotten smoked before she was even born.”
- obsolete, slang, transitiveTo thrash; to beat.
- obsolete, transitiveTo smell out; to hunt out; to find out; to detect.
“He was first smoked by the old Lord Lafeu.”
“I alone / Smok'd his true person, talk'd with him.”
“Upon that […] I began to smoke that they were a parcel of mummers.”
- obsolete, slang, transitiveTo ridicule to the face; to mock.
- To burn; to be kindled; to rage.
“The anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man.”
- To raise a dust or smoke by rapid motion.
“Proud of his steeds, he smokes along the field.”
- To suffer severely; to be punished.
“Some of you shall smoke for it in Rome.”
- US, slang, transitiveTo punish (a person) for a minor offense by excessive physical exercise.
- transitiveTo cover (a key blank) with soot or carbon to aid in seeing the marks made by impressioning.
- The 44th sura (chapter) of the Qur'an.
- UK, informalLondon.
“I'm heading down to the Smoke later this week.”
Formssmokes(plural) · smoak(alternative, obsolete) · smokes(present, singular, third-person) · smoking(participle, present) · smoked(past) · smoked(participle, past) · smoken(nonstandard, participle, past, rare) · the Smoke(canonical)