smart
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /smɑɹt/
ipa: /smɑːt/
rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)t
Forms: form: smarts
Etymology: From Middle English smerte, from smerten (“to smart”); see above. Cognate with Scots smert, Dutch smart, Low German smart, German Schmerz, Danish smerte, Swedish smärta. More above.
Senses: examples: text: […] the bodie had no smart / Of any wound: it was the minde that felt the cruell stings.
ref: 1567, Ovid, “(please specify the book number or chapter)”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis, […], London: […] Willyam Seres […], →OCLC:
text: If chance some Shepherd with a distant Dart / The Savage wound, he rowzes at the Smart, / He foams, he roars […]
ref: 1715–1720, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “Book 5”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, page 25, lines 176-178:
text: Of course Tommy came to grief, tumbled upon a hornets’ nest and got stung; but being used to woe, he bore the smart manfully […]
ref: 1871, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter 12, in Little Men: […], Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC:
text: The smart of his wounded hand woke Scobie at two in the morning.
ref: 1948, Graham Greene, chapter 1, in The Heart of the Matter, London: Heinemann, Book One, Part One, section 8, page 42:
synonyms: word: pang
word: throe
word: misery
word: pain
word: wark
glosses: A sharp, quick, lively pain; a sting.
examples: text: Mishaps are maistred by aduice discrete, / And counsell mitigates the greatest smart; / Found neuer help, who neuer would his hurts impart.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 101:
text: 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.
ref: 1624 (date written), John Milton, “On the Death of a Fair Infant Dying of a Cough”, in Poems, &c. upon Several Occasions, London: […] Tho[mas] Dring […], published 1673, →OCLC, page 20:
text: 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.
ref: 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter VIII, in Great Expectations […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 130:
text: […] 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.
ref: 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 9, in The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN:
synonyms: word: anguish
word: torment
word: anguish
word: rend
word: difficulty
word: distress
word: grief
word: hardship
word: pain
word: smart
word: torment
word: torture
word: trouble
glosses: Mental pain or suffering; grief; affliction.
antonyms: dumb money
glosses: Clipping of smart money.
examples: text: […] I reſolved to quit all further Converſation vvith Beaus and Smarts of all kinds, […]
ref: 1742, Henry Fielding, “In which the Gentleman Relates the History of His Life”, in The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews, and of His Friend Mr. Abraham Adams. […], volume II, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book III, page 36:
synonyms: word: fop
word: macaroni
word: barbermonger
word: beau
word: blade
word: blood
word: buck
word: carpet knight
word: cockscomb
word: dandy
word: dike
word: dood
word: dude
word: dudelet
word: exquisite
word: fashionable
word: fast man
word: fine gentleman
word: fop
word: foretop
word: fribble
word: gallant
word: go
word: jack-a-dandy
word: Jemmy-Jessamy
word: jetter
word: macaroni
word: masher
word: metrosexual
word: mignon
word: petit maître
word: popinjay
word: pretty boy
word: prig
word: puss-gentleman
word: smart
word: spark
word: spiff
word: swell
word: tippy
word: toff
glosses: A dandy; one who is smart in dress; one who is brisk, vivacious, or clever.
Derived terms: smartful