Etymology From Middle English smoken, from Old English smocian (“to smoke, to emit smoke”), 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”).
To inhale and exhale the smoke from a burning cigarette or cigar, burning material in a pipe, etc.
He's smoking his pipe.
Her dad smoked various brands when he was younger.
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To inhale and exhale tobacco smoke.
He used to drop into my chambers once in a while to smoke, and was first-rate company. When I gave a dinner there was generally a cover laid for him. I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 2:
To Edward […] he was terrible, nerve-inflaming, poisonously asphyxiating. He sat rocking himself in the late Mr. Churchill's swing chair, smoking and twaddling.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
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Do you smoke?
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To give off smoke.
My old truck was still smoking even after the repairs.
Hard by a cottage chimney smokes.1645, John Milton, L'Allegro:
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But what struck me most, and at once, was the sharpness, the clear definition of everything-even the distant housetops view across the opposite roofs. And then I noticed that no chimney, large or small, was smoking.1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 16:
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Of a fire in a fireplace, to emit smoke outward instead of up the chimney, owing to imperfect draught.
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Of tobacco: to give off or produce smoke (in a certain manner or of a certain type).
"Damp tobacco," said Cripps, eyeing Limpet offensively as he threw down the challenge, "smokes unevenly. You'll admit that to start with."1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 12:
"Dry tobacco burns even, and therefore smokes cool."1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 13:
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To preserve or prepare (food) for consumption by treating with smoke.
You'll need to smoke the meat for several hours.
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To dry or medicate by smoke.
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.2019, Thomas D. Seeley, The Lives of Bees: The Untold Story of the Honey Bee in the Wild, page 64:
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Obsolete To fill or scent with smoke; hence, to fill with incense; to perfume.
Smoke your bits of glass, Ye loyal Swine, or her transfiguration Will blind your wondering eyes.1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts:
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Slang, As present participle To perform (e.g. music) energetically or skillfully.
The horn section was really smokin' on that last tune.
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Slang To beat someone at something; to be very good at something.
We smoked them at rugby.
en, She's gotta do that song, she outright smokes when she hits the refrain!
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Super Macho Man: 'I DON'T SMOKE... BUT TONIGHT I'M GONNA SMOKE YOU!'1987, Punch-Out!!, Nintendo, published 1990, Nintendo Entertainment System, level/area: Super Macho Man:
"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."2023 September 28, HarryBlank, “Hooking Up”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 25 May 2024:
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Slang To snuff out; to kill, especially with a gun.
He got smoked by the mob.
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.”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), Naval Historical Center:
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I had never met my father, and Precious's daddy had gotten smoked before she was even born.2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 191:
Obsolete To smell out; to hunt out; to find out; to detect.
He was first smoked by the old Lord Lafeu.c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vi]:
I alone / Smok'd his true person, talk'd with him.1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volume (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC:
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Upon that […] I began to smoke that they were a parcel of mummers.1715 May 31 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 44. Friday, May 21. [1715.]”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], published 1721, →OCLC:
The squire gave him a good curse at his departure; and then turning to the parson, he cried out, "I smoke it: I smoke it. Tom is certainly the father of this bastard. […]1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:
The anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 29:20:
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To raise a dust or smoke by rapid motion.
Proud of his steeds, he smokes along the field.1697, Virgil, “Aeneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
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To suffer severely; to be punished.
Some of you shall smoke for it in Rome.c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:
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)”).
The visible vapor/vapour, gases, and fine particles given off by burning or smoldering material.
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.1952 October, C. A. Johns, “One Hundred Years at Kings Cross—1”, in Railway Magazine, page 657:
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.2013 June 29, “Unspontaneous combustion”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 29:
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
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Colloquial Anything to smoke (e.g. cigarettes, marijuana, etc.)
Hey, you got some smoke?
ERCS Guard: Got a smoke? We're all out.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Noveria:
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Colloquial An instance of smoking a cigarette, cigar, etc.; the duration of this act.
I lit a pipe and had a good long smoke, and went on watching.1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter VII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC:
I'm going out for a smoke.
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Figuratively A fleeting illusion; something insubstantial, evanescent, unreal, transitory, or without result.
The excitement behind the new candidate proved to be smoke.
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.1974, John le Carré, chapter 6, in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, New York: Knopf, page 44:
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Figuratively Something used to obscure or conceal; an obscuring condition; see also smoke and mirrors.
Opaque aerosol released on a battlefield, used e.g. to signal or to degrade enemy observation via smokescreen.
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Pollen scattered by a plant.
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. […]1868, Emily Sarah Sellwood Tennyson, journal entry quoted in 1897, Hallam Tennyson, Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Memoir by His Son, page 53
A gustful April morn / That puff'd the swaying branches into smoke.1869, Alfred Tennyson, Holy Grail, 15
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[…] "fruitful cloud and living smoke" of pollen that rises from every spray. The two kinds of flowers are borne on separate trees and the resulting berries are pretty at all stages, and, when ripe, […]1903, Mary Rowles Jarvis, The Tree Book, page 33:
[…] the "smoke" of pollen is so thick that distant hills look as if they are on fire. The culprit is the male cedar, which bears miniscule golden pine cones that release pollen when they pop open. The female tree produces a[…]1998, Diane Capito, Mark Willis, San Antonio on Foot:
[…] a smoke of pollen drifts down upon the mat, it is covered and sealed in the ongoing growth of the sphagnum. A dusting of ash from a volcanic eruption halfway around the world becomes incorporated into the time line of its day,[…]2001 June 14, David M. Carroll, Swampwalker's Journal: A Wetlands Year, HMH, →ISBN, page 258:
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Mist, fog, or drizzle; water vapour, such as from exhalation into cold air.
[…] steeds, whose lowdnes filled the aire with terrour, and whose breathes dimmed the sun with smoake, converted to delicate tunes and amorous glances?1858 [1584?], John Lyly, The Dramatic Works of John Lilly, page 110:
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.1898, Rolf Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms: A Story of Life and Adventure in the Bush and in the Goldfields of Australia, page 71:
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[…] and a smoke of rain was drifting everywhere. In the thin drizzle the sheep were bleating among the dripping heather, and the birds were chattering and chirming in the shelter of the trees and bushes, and on the top of a sapling larch a[…]1901, The Church Standard, page 613:
[…] in a smoke of rain and spray on the long grey shore. The cry of curlews. Your footprints filling up with water the moment you make them. […]2012 February 14, Robert Nye, Falstaff: A Novel, Skyhorse, →ISBN:
A distinct column of smoke, such as indicating a burning area or fire.
When, lo! along the tall Rocky hill-side, a smoke ascends in clouds Like snow-flakes, soaring from the summit up Into the sky.1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume II, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 87:
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.1860, Randolph Barnes Marcy, The Prairie and Overland Traveller, page 203:
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[…] 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.1923, California Historical Society Quarterly, volume 2, page 152:
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.1941 January, C. Hamilton Ellis, “The Scottish Station”, in Railway Magazine, page 1:
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.1957, Sylva: The Lands and Forests Review, volumes 13-14, page 43:
The aerial reconnaissance did see active flame on heavy fuels (logs) and fine fuels (duff/understory), and several smokes.2021 May 15, “Guadalupe Mountains National Park Temporarily Closes Backcountry Campsites due to Dog Fire”, in Guadalupe Mountains National Park News Releases: