smoke
pronunciation
How to pronounce smoke in British English:
UK [sməʊk]
How to pronounce smoke in American English:
US [smoʊk]
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- Noun:
- a cloud of fine particles suspended in a gas
- a hot vapor containing fine particles of carbon being produced by combustion
- an indication of some hidden activity
- something with no concrete substance
- tobacco leaves that have been made into a cylinder
- street names for marijuana
- the act of smoking tobacco or other substances
- (baseball) a pitch thrown with maximum velocity
-
- Verb:
- inhale and exhale smoke from cigarettes, cigars, pipes
- emit a cloud of fine particles
Word Origin
- smoke
- smoke: [OE] Smoke has close relatives in German schmauch and Dutch smook, now specialized in meaning to ‘thick smoke’. And more distantly it is linked to Welsh mwg and Breton moged ‘smoke’, Lithuanian smaugti ‘choke with smoke’, Greek smugenai ‘be consumed with heat’, and Armenian mux ‘smoke’. The use of the verb smoke in connection with tobacco is first recorded in 1604, in James I’s Counterblast to Tobacco.
- smoke (n.1)
- late Old English smoca (rare) "fumes and volatile material given off by burning substances," related to smeocan "give off smoke," from Proto-Germanic *smuk- (cognates: Middle Dutch smooc, Dutch smook, Middle High German smouch, German Schmauch), from PIE root *smeug- "to smoke; smoke" (cognates: Armenian mux "smoke," Greek smykhein "to burn with smoldering flame," Old Irish much, Welsh mwg "smoke"). There is no fyre without some smoke [Heywood, 1562] The more usual noun was Old English smec, which became dialectal smeech. Abusive meaning "black person" attested from 1913, American English. Smoke-eater "firefighter" is c. 1930. Figurative phrase go up in smoke "be destroyed" (as if by fire) is from 1933. Smoke-alarm first attested 1936; smoke-detector from 1957.
- smoke (v.)
- Old English smocian "to produce smoke, emit smoke," especially as a result of burning, from smoke (n.1). Meaning "to drive out or away or into the open by means of smoke" is attested from 1590s. Meaning "to apply smoke to, to cure (bacon, fish, etc.) by exposure to smoke" is first attested 1590s. In connection with tobacco, "draw fumes from burning into the mouth," first recorded 1604 in James I's "Counterblast to Tobacco." Related: Smoked; smoking. Smoking gun in figurative sense of "incontestable evidence" is from 1974.
- smoke (n.2)
- "cigarette," slang, 1882, from smoke (n.1). Also "opium" (1884). Meaning "a spell of smoking tobacco" is recorded from 1835.
Example
- 1. You couldn 't see anything but smoke .
- 2. Cigarette smoke and radiation also produce free radicals .
- 3. Cigar smoke and ignorance are in the air .
- 4. Margaret had promised our parents she wouldn 't smoke .
- 5. She lit a cigarette and began to smoke .