smack
Part of speech: noun
verb
adv
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: The noun is from Middle English smac, smak, smacke, from Old English smæc, smæċċ (“taste, smatch”), from Proto-West Germanic *smakku, from Proto-Germanic *smakkuz (“a taste”), from Proto-Indo-European *smegʰ-, *smeg- (“to taste”). The verb is from Middle English smaken. Doublet of smatch (obsolete, “taste”; q.v.), from Old English smæċċan (“to taste, smack”).
Cognate with Scots smak (“scent, smell, taste, flavour”), Saterland Frisian Smoak (“taste”), West Frisian smaak (“taste”), Dutch smaak (“taste”), German Schmack, Geschmack (“taste”), Danish smag (“taste”), Swedish and Norwegian smak (“taste”), Norwegian smekke.
Inflected forms:
form: smacks
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: smacks
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: smacking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: smacked
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: smacked
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A distinct flavor, especially if slight.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: rice pudding with a smack of cinnamon
I did not call him fool, and vex my friend, / But quietly allowed experiment, / Encouraged him to dust his drink, and now / Grate lignum vitæ now bruise so-called grains / Of Paradise, and now, for perfume, pour / Distilment rare, the rose of Jericho, / Holy-thorn, passion-flower, and what know I? / Till beverage obtained the fancied smack.
But take it: if the smack is sour / The better for the embittered hour; […]
gloss: A slight trace of something; a smattering.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: He was not sailorly, and yet he had a smack of the sea about him too.
I like my cousins in Holland immensely, but I feel more sib to the Northerners. Your description of Lofoten is fine. I can see them. They must be enchanting in their way, cod's head and tails or no. There is a fine eau de Javelle smack about a Dutch canal, by the way, that takes[…]
gloss: Synonym of heroin.
pos: noun
tags: slang
uncountable
examples: Claude overdosed on smack in a Chicago flophouse three years later.
gloss: A form of fried potato; a scallop.
pos: noun
tags: Northern-England
countable
uncountable
gloss: To get the flavor of.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: He soon smacked the taste of physic hidden in this sweetness.
gloss: To have a particular taste; used with of.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: 1820-25, Charles Lamb, Essays of Elia
He had his tea and hot rolls in a morning, while we were battening upon our quarter-of-a-penny loaf — our crug — moistened with attenuated small beer, in wooden piggings, smacking of the pitched leathern jack it was poured from.
gloss: To indicate or suggest something; used with of.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Her reckless behavior smacks of pride.
All sects, all ages, smack of this vice.
gloss: As if with a smack or slap; smartly; sharply.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
examples: Right smack in the middle of getting ready to leave.
She fell smack on her face.
After one early moment in their courtship, Franny expresses, "That night I could feel my beauty standing up inside me for the first time in my life." These heightened scenes of discovery are offered smack amidst moods of vicious aggression and unresolvable separation, keeping Unusual Company rich with subtle twists.
Derived words: foresmack
like smack
smackhead
smackless
Translations: