smoke
see also: Smoke
Pronunciation
  • (British) enPR: smōk, IPA: /sməʊk/
  • (America) enPR: smōk, IPA: /smoʊk/
  • (Canada, Scotland) IPA: /smoːk/
Etymology 1

From Middle English smoke, from Old English smoca, probably a derivative of the verb (see below).

Noun

smoke

  1. (uncountable) The visible vapor/vapour, gases, and fine particles given off by burning or smoldering material.
  2. (colloquial, countable) A cigarette.
    • 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
    Can I bum a smoke off you?;  I need to go buy some smokes.
  3. (colloquial, uncountable) Anything to smoke (e.g. cigarettes, marijuana, etc.)
    Hey, you got some smoke?
  4. (colloquial, countable, never plural) An instance of smoking a cigarette, cigar, etc.; the duration of this act.
    • 1884 December 9, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter VII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer's Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC ↗:
      I lit a pipe and had a good long smoke, and went on watching.
    I'm going out for a smoke.
  5. (uncountable, figuratively) A fleeting illusion; something insubstantial, evanescent, unreal, transitory, or without result.
    The excitement behind the new candidate proved to be smoke.
    • 1974, John le Carré, chapter 6, in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, New York: Knopf, page 44:
      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.
  6. (uncountable, figuratively) Something used to obscure or conceal; an obscuring condition; see also smoke and mirrors.
    The smoke of controversy.
  7. (uncountable) A light grey colour/color tinted with blue.
     
  8. (uncountable, slang) Bother; problems; hassle.
    You better not be giving me no smoke.
  9. (military, uncountable) A particulate of solid or liquid particles dispersed into the air on the battlefield to degrade enemy ground or for aerial observation. Smoke has many uses--screening smoke, signaling smoke, smoke curtain, smoke haze, and smoke deception. Thus it is an artificial aerosol.
  10. (baseball, slang) A fastball.
  11. (countable) A distinct column of smoke, such as indicating a burning area or fire.
Synonyms Related terms Translations

see smoke/translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English smoken, from Old English smocian, from Proto-West Germanic *smokōn, from Proto-Germanic *smukōną, ablaut derivative of Proto-Germanic *smaukaną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mewg-.

Verb

smoke (smokes, present participle smoking; simple past and past participle smoked)

  1. (transitive) To 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.
  2. (intransitive) To inhale and exhale tobacco smoke.
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC ↗, page 2 ↗:
      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 promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me.
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗:
      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?
  3. (intransitive) To give off smoke.
    My old truck was still smoking even after the repairs.
    • 1645, John Milton, L'Allegro:
      Hard by a cottage chimney smokes.
    1. (intransitive) Of a fire in a fireplace: to emit smoke outward instead of up the chimney, owing to imperfect draught.
  4. (transitive) To preserve or prepare (food) for consumption by treating with smoke.
    You'll need to smoke the meat for several hours.
  5. (transitive) To dry or medicate by smoke.
    • 2019, Thomas D. Seeley, The Lives of Bees: The Untold Story of the Honey Bee in the Wild, page 64:
      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.
  6. (transitive, obsolete) To fill or scent with smoke; hence, to fill with incense; to perfume.
  7. (transitive, obsolete) To make unclear or blurry.
    • 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts:
      Smoke your bits of glass,
      Ye loyal Swine, or her transfiguration
      Will blind your wondering eyes.
  8. (intransitive, slang, mostly, as present participle) To perform (e.g. music) energetically or skillfully.
    The horn section was really smokin' on that last tune.
  9. (slang) To beat someone at something.
    We smoked them at rugby.
  10. (transitive, slang) To kill, especially with a gun.
    He got smoked by the mob.
    • 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 191 ↗:
      I had never met my father, and Precious's daddy had gotten smoked before she was even born.
  11. (transitive, slang, obsolete) To thrash; to beat.
  12. (obsolete, transitive) To smell out; to hunt out; to find out; to detect.
    • c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All's Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene vi]:
      He was first smoked by the old Lord Lafeu.
    • 1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer's Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC ↗; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volume (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC ↗:
      I alone / Smok'd his true person, talk'd with him.
      The spelling has been modernized.
    • 1715 June 1 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 44. Saturday, May 21. [1715.]”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], published 1721, →OCLC ↗:
      Upon that […] I began to smoke that they were a parcel of mummers.
    • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC ↗:
      The squire gave him a good curse at his departure; and then turning to the parson, he cried out, "I smoke it: I smoke it. Tom is certainly the father of this bastard. […]
  13. (slang, obsolete, transitive) To ridicule to the face; to mock.
  14. To burn; to be kindled; to rage.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Deuteronomy 29:20 ↗:
      The anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man.
  15. To raise a dust or smoke by rapid motion.
    • 1697, Virgil, “Aeneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC ↗:
      Proud of his steeds, he smokes along the field.
  16. To suffer severely; to be punished.
    • c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act IV, scene ii]:
      Some of you shall smoke for it in Rome.
  17. (transitive, US military slang) To punish (a person) for a minor offense by excessive physical exercise.
  18. (transitive) To cover (a key blank) with soot or carbon to aid in seeing the marks made by impressioning.
Synonyms
  • (to inhale and exhale smoke from a burning cigarette) have a smoke
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations
Smoke
Proper noun
  1. The 44th sura (chapter) of the Qur'an.
Translations Proper noun
  1. (UK, informal) London.
    I'm heading down to the Smoke later this week.
Noun

smoke

  1. Synonym of Burmilla



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