Word: smoke Part of Speech: noun Etymology: From 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”), German Schmauch (“smoke (from a gun barrel)”). Pronunciation: /sməʊk/, /smoʊk/, /sməʉk/, /smɐʉk/, /smok/ 1. The visible vapor/vapour, gases, and fine particles given off by burning or smoldering material. Labels: uncountable Example: 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 tank engines thumped their way up the incline and emerged from the tunnel, in clouds of steam and smoke, to pound their way up the last few hundred feet of gradient alongside the platform. Example: 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 South-East Asia. The cheapest way to clear logged woodland is to burn it, producing an acrid cloud of foul white smoke that, carried by the wind, can cover hundreds, or even thousands, of square miles. 2. A cigarette. Labels: colloquial, countable Example: Can I bum a smoke off you? Example: I need to go buy some smokes. 3. Anything to smoke (e.g. cigarettes, marijuana, etc.) Labels: colloquial, uncountable Example: Hey, you got some smoke? Example: ERCS Guard: Got a smoke? We're all out. 4. An instance of smoking a cigarette, cigar, etc.; the duration of this act. Labels: colloquial, countable Example: I lit a pipe and had a good long smoke, and went on watching. Example: I'm going out for a smoke. 5. A fleeting illusion; something insubstantial, evanescent, unreal, transitory, or without result. Labels: figuratively, uncountable Example: The excitement behind the new candidate proved to be smoke. Example: 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. Something used to obscure or conceal; an obscuring condition; see also smoke and mirrors. Labels: figuratively, uncountable Example: The smoke of controversy. 7. A light grey color tinted with blue. Labels: uncountable 8. Bother, trouble; problems; hassle. Labels: slang, uncountable Example: You better not be giving me no smoke. 9. Any cloud of solid particles or liquid vapor dispersed into the air; particularly one of: Labels: countable, uncountable 10. Any cloud of solid particles or liquid vapor dispersed into the air; particularly one of: Labels: countable, uncountable Example: 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. […] Example: A gustful April morn / That puff'd the swaying branches into smoke. 11. Any cloud of solid particles or liquid vapor dispersed into the air; particularly one of: Labels: countable, uncountable Example: […] steeds, whose lowdnes filled the aire with terrour, and whose breathes dimmed the sun with smoake, converted to delicate tunes and amorous glances? Example: 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. 12. A fastball. Labels: countable, slang, uncountable 13. A distinct column of smoke, such as indicating a burning area or fire. Labels: countable Example: When, lo! along the tall Rocky hill-side, a smoke ascends in clouds Like snow-flakes, soaring from the summit up Into the sky. Example: 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.