• (America) IPA: /smɑɹt/
• (RP) IPA: /smɑːt/

smart (smarts, present participle smarting; past smarted, past participle smarted)

1. (intransitive) To hurt or sting.

   After being hit with a pitch, the batter exclaimed "Ouch, my arm smarts!"

   • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula Chapter 21

     He moved convulsively, and as he did so, said, "I'll be quiet, Doctor. Tell them to take off the strait waistcoat. I have had a terrible dream, and it has left me so weak that I cannot move. What's wrong with my face? It feels all swollen, and it smarts dreadfully."

2. (transitive) To cause a smart or sting in.

   • A goad that […] smarts the flesh.

3. (intransitive) To feel a pungent pain of mind; to feel sharp pain or grief; be punished severely; to feel the sting of evil.
   • 1735, [Alexander] Pope, An Epistle from Mr. Pope, to Dr. Arbuthnot, London; Dublin: Re-printed by George Faulkner, bookseller, […], OCLC 6363280 ↗:

     No creature smarts so little as a fool.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, Proverbs 11:15 ↗:

     He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it.

• French: piquer
• German: schmerzen
• Spanish: escocer

smart (comparative smarter, superlative smartest)

1. Exhibiting social ability or cleverness.

   Synonyms: bright, capable, sophisticated, witty

   Antonyms: backward, banal, boorish, dull, inept

   • 1811, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, chapter 19

     I always preferred the church, and I still do. But that was not smart enough for my family. They recommended the army. That was a great deal too smart for me.

2. (informal) Exhibiting intellectual knowledge, such as that found in books.

   Synonyms: cultivated, educated, learned, Thesaurus:learned

   Antonyms: ignorant, uncultivated, simple

3. (often, in combination) Equipped with intelligent behaviour (digital/computer technology).

   smart bomb

   smart car

   smartcard

   smartphone

4. Good-looking; well dressed; fine; fashionable.

   Synonyms: attractive, chic, dapper, stylish, handsome

   Antonyms: garish, outré, tacky

   a smart outfit

   You look smart in that business suit.

5. Cleverly shrewd and humorous in a way that may be rude and disrespectful.

   Synonyms: silly

   He became tired of his daughter's sarcasm and smart remarks.

   Don't get smart with me!

   • Who, for the poor renown of being smart / Would leave a sting within a brother's heart?

   • I played a sentence or two at my butt, which I thought very smart, when my ill genius, who I verily believed inspired him purely for my destruction, suggested to him such a reply

6. Sudden and intense.

   • smart skirmishes, in which many fell

   • 1860 July 9, Henry David Thoreau, journal entry, from Thoreau's bird-lore, Francis H. Allen (editor), Houghton Mifflin (Boston, 1910), Thoreau on Birds: notes on New England birds from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau, Beacon Press, (Boston, 1993), page 239:

     There is a smart shower at 5 P.M., and in the midst of it a hummingbird is busy about the flowers in the garden, unmindful of it, though you would think that each big drop that struck him would be a serious accident.

7. Causing sharp pain; stinging.
   • c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene i]:

     How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience.

8. Sharp; keen; poignant.

   a smart pain

9. (US, Southern, dated) Intense in feeling; painful. Used usually with the adverb intensifier right.

   He raised his voice, and it hurt her feelings right smart.

   That cast on his leg chaffs him right smart.

10. (archaic) Efficient; vigorous; brilliant.

    • The stars shine smarter.

11. (archaic) Pretentious; showy; spruce.

    a smart gown

12. (archaic) Brisk; fresh.

    a smart breeze

• French: habile
• Portuguese: esperto
• Russian: сообрази́тельный
• Spanish: vivo, vivaracho

• French: habile, intelligent
• German: klug, intelligent, gescheit
• Portuguese: inteligente
• Russian: у́мный
• Spanish: listo, intelectual

• French: intelligent
• Russian: интеллектуальный

• French: élégant
• Portuguese: elegante
• Russian: элега́нтный

• Russian: остроу́мный

smart (plural smarts)

1. A sharp, quick, lively pain; a sting.
   • 1567, Arthur Golding (translator), The XV Bookes of Ovid, entytuled Metamorphoses, London: William Seres, Book , p. 51,

     […] the bodie had no smart

     Of any wound: it was the minde that felt the cruell stings.

   • 1716, Alexander Pope (translator), The Iliad of Homer, London: Bernard Lintot, Volume 2, Book 5, lines 176-178, p. 25,

     If chance some Shepherd with a distant Dart

     The Savage wound, he rowzes at the Smart,

     He foams, he roars […]

   • 1871, Louisa May Alcott, Little Men, Chapter 12,

     Of course Tommy came to grief, tumbled upon a hornets’ nest and got stung; but being used to woe, he bore the smart manfully […]

   • 1948, Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter, London: Heinemann, Book One, Part One, Chapter 1, section 8, p. 42,

     The smart of his wounded hand woke Scobie at two in the morning.

2. Mental pain or suffering; grief; affliction.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, London: William Ponsonbie, Book 1, Canto 7, p. 101,

     Mishaps are maistred by aduice discrete,

     And counsell mitigates the greatest smart;

     Found neuer help, who neuer would his hurts impart.

   • 1673, John Milton, “Anno aetatis 17. On the Death of a fair Infant dying of a Cough” in Poems, &c. upon Several Occasions Both English and Latin, London: Thomas Dring, p. 20,

     But oh why didst thou not stay here below

     To bless us with thy heav’n lov’d innocence, […]

     To stand ’twixt us and our deserved smart

     But thou canst best perform that office where thou art.

   • 1861, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, Chapter 8,

     I was so humiliated, hurt, spurned, offended, angry, sorry,—I cannot hit upon the right name for the smart—God knows what its name was,—that tears started to my eyes.

   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty, London: Picador, Chapter 9, p. 250,

     […] Bertrand said, ‘No, you bloody idiot, do you think I drink this? I want mineral water.’ The girl recoiled for just a second at the smart of his tone […] and then apologized with steely insincerity.

3. Smart-money.
4. (slang, dated) A dandy; one who is smart in dress; one who is brisk, vivacious, or clever.
   • 1742, Henry Fielding, Joseph Andrews, London: A. Millar, 3rd edition, 1743, Volume 2, Book 3, Chapter 3, p. 27,

     […] I resolved to quit all further Conversation with Beaus and Smarts of every kind […]

1. (mnemonic) An acronym for remembering desirable characteristics for goal-setting: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Tangible
2. (computing) Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology

1. Surname