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Wiktionary

smoke

See also: Smoke

English

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Alternative forms

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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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”), dialectal German Schmauch (“smoke”).

Noun

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Smoke (1)

smoke (countable and uncountable, plural smokes)

  1. (uncountable) The visible vapor/vapour, gases, and fine particles given off by burning or smoldering material.
    • 1952 October, C. A. Johns, “One Hundred Years at Kings Cross—1”, in Railway Magazine, page 657:
      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.
    • 2013 June 29, “Unspontaneous combustion”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 29:
      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. (colloquial, countable) A cigarette.
    • 2019, Idles, "Never Fight a Man With a Perm", Joy as an Act of Resistance.
      I said I've got a penchant for smokes and kicking douches in the mouth / Sadly for you my last cigarette's gone out
    Can I bum a smoke off you?;  I need to go buy some smokes.
  3. (colloquial, uncountable) Anything to smoke (e.g. cigarettes, marijuana, etc.)
    Hey, you got some smoke?
  4. (colloquial, countable, never plural) An instance of smoking a cigarette, cigar, etc.; the duration of this act.
    I'm going out for a smoke.
  5. (uncountable, figuratively) A fleeting illusion; something insubstantial, evanescent, unreal, transitory, or without result.
    The excitement behind the new candidate proved to be smoke.
    • 1974, John le Carré, chapter 6, in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy‎[1], New York: Knopf, page 44:
      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. (uncountable, figuratively) Something used to obscure or conceal; an obscuring condition; see also smoke and mirrors.
    The smoke of controversy.
  7. (uncountable) A light grey color tinted with blue.
    smoke:  
  8. (uncountable, slang) Bother; problems; hassle.
    You better not be giving me no smoke.
  9. (military, uncountable) A particulate of solid or liquid particles dispersed into the air on the battlefield to degrade enemy ground or for aerial observation. Smoke has many uses--screening smoke, signaling smoke, smoke curtain, smoke haze, and smoke deception. Thus it is an artificial aerosol.
  10. (baseball, slang) A fastball.
  11. (countable) A distinct column of smoke, such as indicating a burning area or fire.
    • 1860, Randolph Barnes Marcy, The Prairie and Overland Traveller, page 203:
      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.
    • 1923, California Historical Society Quarterly, volume 2, page 152:
      […] and we could not discern any settlement or any people, but we did see two smokes up-river in some thick groves of oak and cork and willows and other high trees, of a good thickness, resembling ash trees.
    • 1941 January, C. Hamilton Ellis, “The Scottish Station”, in Railway Magazine, page 1:
      In the evening haze, even the Calton Gaol took on something of the savage grandeur of a Doré drawing, and this was by no means spoilt by the rising smokes of North British engines in the ravine below.
    • 1957, Sylva: The Lands and Forests Review, volumes 13-14, page 43:
      During the night, a severe lightning storm passed over this area and in the morning the towerman reported two smokes separated by about two miles distance.
    • 2021 May 15, “Guadalupe Mountains National Park Temporarily Closes Backcountry Campsites due to Dog Fire”, in Guadalupe Mountains National Park News Releases‎[2]:
      The aerial reconnaissance did see active flame on heavy fuels (logs) and fine fuels (duff/understory), and several smokes.
Synonyms
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Derived terms
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Translations
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See smoke/translations § Noun.

Etymology 2

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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”).

Verb

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smoke (third-person singular simple present smokes, present participle smoking, simple past and past participle smoked)

  1. (transitive) To inhale and exhale the smoke from a burning cigarette, cigar, pipe, etc.
    He's smoking his pipe.
    Smoking a pipe has gone out of fashion.
    Olivia's dad smoked various brands when he was younger.
  2. (intransitive) To inhale and exhale tobacco smoke.
    Do you smoke?
  3. (intransitive) To give off smoke.
    My old truck was still smoking even after the repairs.
    • 1645, John Milton, L'Allegro:
      Hard by a cottage chimney smokes.
    1. (intransitive) Of a fire in a fireplace: to emit smoke outward instead of up the chimney, owing to imperfect draught.
  4. (transitive) To preserve or prepare (food) for consumption by treating with smoke.
    You'll need to smoke the meat for several hours.
  5. (transitive) To dry or medicate by smoke.
    • 2019, Thomas D. Seeley, The Lives of Bees: The Untold Story of the Honey Bee in the Wild, page 64:
      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.
  6. (transitive, obsolete) To fill or scent with smoke; hence, to fill with incense; to perfume.
  7. (transitive, obsolete) To make unclear or blurry.
    • 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts:
      Smoke your bits of glass,
      Ye loyal Swine, or her transfiguration
      Will blind your wondering eyes.
  8. (intransitive, slang, chiefly as present participle) To perform (e.g. music) energetically or skillfully.
    The horn section was really smokin' on that last tune.
  9. (slang) To beat someone at something.
    We smoked them at rugby.
    • 1987, Punch-Out!!, Nintendo, published 1990, Nintendo Entertainment System, level/area: Super Macho Man:
      Super Macho Man: 'I DON'T SMOKE... BUT TONIGHT I'M GONNA SMOKE YOU!'
    • 2023 September 28, HarryBlank, “Hooking Up”, in SCP Foundation‎[3], archived from the original on 25 May 2024:
      "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."
  10. (transitive, slang) To kill, especially with a gun.
    He got smoked by the mob.
    • 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)‎[4], Naval Historical Center:
      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.”
    • 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 191:
      I had never met my father, and Precious's daddy had gotten smoked before she was even born.
  11. (transitive, slang, obsolete) To thrash; to beat.
  12. (obsolete, transitive) To smell out; to hunt out; to find out; to detect.
  13. (slang, obsolete, transitive) To ridicule to the face; to mock.
  14. To burn; to be kindled; to rage.
  15. To raise a dust or smoke by rapid motion.
    • 1697, Virgil, “Aeneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
      Proud of his steeds, he smokes along the field.
  16. To suffer severely; to be punished.
  17. (transitive, US military slang) To punish (a person) for a minor offense by excessive physical exercise.
  18. (transitive) To cover (a key blank) with soot or carbon to aid in seeing the marks made by impressioning.
Synonyms
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  • (to inhale and exhale smoke from a burning cigarette): have a smoke
Derived terms
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Descendants
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  • Dutch: smoken
  • Sranan Tongo: smoko
Translations
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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

See also

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Anagrams

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Middle English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Old English smoca, from Proto-Germanic *smukô (“smoke, nebulous air”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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smoke (plural smokes or smokkes)

  1. smoke

Descendants

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References

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