smite
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From Middle English smiten, from Old English smītan (“to daub, smear, smudge; soil, defile, pollute”), from Proto-West Germanic *smītan, from Proto-Germanic *smītaną (“to sling; throw; smear”), from Proto-Indo-European *smeyd- (“to smear, whisk, strike, rub”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian smiete (“to throw, toss”), West Frisian smite (“to throw”), Dutch smijten (“to fling, hurl, throw”), German Low German smieten (“to throw, chuck, toss”), German schmeißen (“to fling, throw”), Danish smide (“to throw”), Swedish smita (“to run off (to)”), Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐍃𐌼𐌴𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (bismeitan, “to besmear, anoint”).
Inflected forms:
form: smites
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: smiting
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: smote
pos: verb
tags: past
form: smited
pos: verb
tags: past
form: smit
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
past
form: smitten
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: smote
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: smited
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: smit
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
participle
past
form: smight
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: To hit; to strike.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
examples: Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
That elf-maiden smote with her hand so white,
“Sorrow and sickness on thee alight”
That elf-maiden smote with her cap so small,
“No more shall priest's benison on thee fall!”
A harp can give out but a certain quantity of sound, however heavily it is smitten.
It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street.[…]. He halted opposite the Privy Gardens, and, with his face turned skywards, listened until the sound of the Tower guns smote again on the ear and dispelled his doubts.
"Right you are!" I cried. "We must believe the other until we prove it false. We can't afford to give up heart now, when we need heart most. The branch was carried down by a river, and we are going to find that river." I smote my open palm with a clenched fist, to emphasize a determination unsupported by hope.
Tony Stark makes you feel
He’s a cool exec with a heart of steel.
As Iron Man, all jets ablaze,
He’s fighting and smiting with repulsor rays!
Amazing armor! That’s Iron Man!
A blazing power! That’s Iron Man!
gloss: To strike down or kill with godly force.
pos: verb
examples: And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand. And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go.
For it is written, I will ſmite the Shepheard, and the Sheep ſhall be ſcattered. […] Becauſe the Shepheard was to be ſmitten, they as Sheepe muſt be ſcattered. The Scope of which place is, to prove Chriſt the true Paſtor of the Flocke, even by his ſmiting and abaſement; and ſo moſt aptly alledged that the Diſciples might have matter of ſtrength and comfort thence where they ſtumbled and offended themſelves.
gloss: To injure with divine power.
pos: verb
examples: VERSE 12. And the fourth angel ſounded, and the third part of the ſun was ſmitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the ſtars, ſo as the third part of them was darkened, and the day ſhone not for a third part of it, and the night likewiſe. […] [T]his Jeſus which ſignifies the ſun, was ſmitten with persecution and ſufferings in the time of his miniſtry, that there could but a third part of his heavenly light ſhine upon the people of the Jews, and happy were thoſe that this light did ſhine upon.
gloss: To kill violently; to slay.
pos: verb
examples: "She is sitting in the great hall even now to do justice upon those who would have smitten thee and the Lion."
gloss: To put to rout in battle; to overthrow by war.
pos: verb
examples: […]and it turned out, if you just dumped pure oxygen and kerosene into the combustion chamber, the torpedo would travel at fairly-high speed... just instantaneously in all directions at once, disassembling itself, and any nearby people, with considerable enthusiasm. Explaining that this was entirely-unacceptable behavior for a torpedo that was designed to smite the Emperor's enemies didn't really tend to work out that well, since they hadn't yet invented the Machine Spirit, and, in any case, working out which bit of the torpedo you were supposed to talk to, or possibly scrape off the wall, was somewhat difficult once it had decided to launch a several-hundred-meter search into the realm of the honorable ancestors.
gloss: To afflict; to chasten; to punish.
pos: verb
examples: Let us not mistake the goodness of God, nor imagine that because he smites us, therefore we are forsaken by him.
A country deprived of the Ganges is ſmitten; a family without learning is ſmitten; a woman without a child is ſmitten; a ſacrifice without the Brahman's rights is ſmitten.
gloss: To strike with love or infatuation.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
examples: Bob was smitten with Laura from the first time he saw her.
I was really smitten by the color combination, and soon repainted the entire house.
See what the charms that smite the simple heart, // Not touch'd by Nature, and not reach'd by art.
Thus was written beneath the arms of Arthur of Lesser, duke of Brittany […] Love nonetheless made me feel his dart, / For my person was smitten and inflamed / In its soul by she for whom I bore my shield here: […]
Maybe he was smitten with Clare. And maybe the fact that he didn't want to leave meant it was past time he did.
Derived words: forsmite
offsmite
smiteful
smite hip and thigh
smiter
Translations: