smoke
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: smōk
ipa: /sməʊk/
enpr: smōk
ipa: /smoʊk/
ipa: /smoːk/
rhymes: -əʊk
Forms: form: smokes
form: smoking
form: smoked
form: smoked
form: smoken
form: smoak
Etymology: From Middle English smoken, from Old English smocian (“to smoke, emit smoke; fumigate”), from Proto-West Germanic *smokōn, from Proto-Germanic *smukōną (“to smoke”), ablaut derivative of Proto-Germanic *smaukaną (“to smoke”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mewg- (“to smoke”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian smookje (“to smoke”), West Frisian smoke (“to smoke”), Dutch smoken (“to smoke”), Low German smöken (“to smoke”), German Low German smoken (“to smoke”). Related also to Old English smēocan (“to smoke, emit smoke; fumigate”), Bavarian schmuckelen (“to smell bad, reek”).
Senses: examples: text: He's smoking his pipe.
text: Smoking a pipe has gone out of fashion.
text: Olivia's dad smoked various brands when he was younger.
glosses: To inhale and exhale the smoke from a burning cigarette, cigar, pipe, etc.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: To Edward […] he was terrible, nerve-inflaming, poisonously asphyxiating. He sat rocking himself in the late Mr. Churchill's swing chair, smoking and twaddling.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: Do you smoke?
glosses: To inhale and exhale tobacco smoke.
examples: text: My old truck was still smoking even after the repairs.
text: Hard by a cottage chimney smokes.
ref: 1645, John Milton, L'Allegro:
glosses: To give off smoke.
glosses: To give off smoke.
Of a fire in a fireplace: to emit smoke outward instead of up the chimney, owing to imperfect draught.
examples: text: You'll need to smoke the meat for several hours.
glosses: To preserve or prepare (food) for consumption by treating with smoke.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2019, Thomas D. Seeley, The Lives of Bees: The Untold Story of the Honey Bee in the Wild, page 64:
glosses: To dry or medicate by smoke.
glosses: To fill or scent with smoke; hence, to fill with incense; to perfume.
examples: text: Smoke your bits of glass,
Ye loyal Swine, or her transfiguration
Will blind your wondering eyes.
ref: 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts:
glosses: To make unclear or blurry.
examples: text: The horn section was really smokin' on that last tune.
glosses: To perform (e.g. music) energetically or skillfully.
raw_tags: as present participle
examples: text: We smoked them at rugby.
text: Super Macho Man: 'I DON'T SMOKE... BUT TONIGHT I'M GONNA SMOKE YOU!'
ref: 1987, Punch-Out!!, Nintendo, published 1990, Nintendo Entertainment System, level/area: Super Macho Man:
text: "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 on him, but even the two combined won't do. We need a third smoking gun if we're really gonna smoke this son of a bitch."
ref: 2023 September 28, HarryBlank, “Hooking Up”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 25 May 2024:
glosses: To beat someone at something.
examples: text: He got smoked by the mob.
text: 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 you” or “I'd fly 10,000 miles to smoke a camel.”
ref: 1993, Joseph T. Stanik, "Swift and Effective Retribution": The U.S. Sixth Fleet and the Confrontation with Qaddafi (The U.S. Navy in the Modern World Series; 3), Naval Historical Center:
text: I had never met my father, and Precious's daddy had gotten smoked before she was even born.
ref: 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 191:
glosses: To snuff out; to kill, especially with a gun.
glosses: To thrash; to beat.
examples: text: He was first smoked by the old Lord Lafeu.
ref: 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]:
text: I alone / Smok'd his true person, talk'd with him.
ref: 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:
text: Upon that […] I began to smoke that they were a parcel of mummers.
ref: 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:
text: 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. […]
ref: 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To smell out; to hunt out; to find out; to detect.
glosses: To ridicule to the face; to mock.
examples: text: The anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 29:20:
glosses: To burn; to be kindled; to rage.
examples: text: Proud of his steeds, he smokes along the field.
ref: 1697, Virgil, “Aeneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To raise a dust or smoke by rapid motion.
examples: text: Some of you shall smoke for it in Rome.
ref: 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]:
glosses: To suffer severely; to be punished.
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: To punish (a person) for a minor offense by excessive physical exercise.
glosses: To cover (a key blank) with soot or carbon to aid in seeing the marks made by impressioning.
Synonyms: sense: to inhale and exhale smoke from a burning cigarette
word: have a smoke
Derived terms: asmoke
can I smoke
chain-smoke
put that in your pipe and smoke it
smoke around
smoked Irish
smoked Irishman
smoke dope
smoke like a chimney
smoke like a furnace
smoke like a trooper
smoke one's own dope
smoke out
smoke pole
smoker
smoke someone's pole
smoke up
smoking
stick that in your pipe and smoke it
what are you smoking
what was someone smoking
Related terms: bogue
cigar
cigarette
hypercapnia
pipe
reek
smudge pot
tobacco
typhus