smolder
pronunciation
How to pronounce smolder in British English:
UK ['sməʊldə]
How to pronounce smolder in American English:
US [ˈsmoldɚ]
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- Verb:
- burn slowly and without a flame
- have strong suppressed feelings
Word Origin
- smolder (v.)
- c. 1300 (implied in smoldering), "to smother, suffocate," related to Middle Dutch smolen, Low German smelen, Flemish smoel "hot," from Proto-Germanic *smel-, *smul-. The intransitive meaning "burn and smoke without flame" is first recorded 1520s, fell from use 17c. (though smoldering persisted in poetry) and was revived 19c. Figurative sense "exist in a suppressed state; burn inwardly" is from 1810. Related: Smouldered; smolderingly. Middle English also had a noun smolder meaning "smoky vapor, a stifling smoke."
Example
- 1. They fester and smolder beneath the surface .
- 2. Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture ?
- 3. The smolder will soon be a flame .
- 4. And every time I hold her man , I start to smolder .
- 5. It can smolder undetected for hours , then suddenly explode in fiery destruction .