smoke

noun

1. 1

   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.

   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. 2

   A cigarette.

   Can I bum a smoke off you?

   I need to go buy some smokes.

   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

3. 3

   Anything to smoke (e.g. cigarettes, marijuana, etc.)

   Hey, you got some smoke?

   ERCS Guard: Got a smoke? We're all out.

4. 4

   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.

   I'm going out for a smoke.

5. 5

   figurativeA 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.

6. 6

   figurativeSomething used to obscure or conceal; an obscuring condition; see also smoke and mirrors.

   The smoke of controversy.

7. 7

   A light grey color tinted with blue.

8. 8

   slangBother, trouble; problems; hassle.

   You better not be giving me no smoke.

9. 9

   Any cloud of solid particles or liquid vapor dispersed into the air; particularly one of: Opaque aerosol released on a battlefield, used e.g. to signal or to degrade enemy observation via smokescreen.

10. 10

    Any cloud of solid particles or liquid vapor dispersed into the air; particularly one of: 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. […]

    A gustful April morn / That puff'd the swaying branches into smoke.

    […] "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, […]

    […] 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[…]

11. 11

    Any cloud of solid particles or liquid vapor dispersed into the air; particularly one of: 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?

    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.

    […] 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[…]

    […] 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. […]

12. 12

    slangA fastball.

13. 13

    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.

    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.

    […] 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.

    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.

verb

1. 1

   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.

2. 2

   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.

   To Edward […] he was terrible, nerve-inflaming, poisonously asphyxiating. He sat rocking himself in the late Mr. Churchill's swing chair, smoking and twaddling.

   Do you smoke?

3. 3

   To give off smoke.

   My old truck was still smoking even after the repairs.

   Hard by a cottage chimney smokes.

   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.

4. 4

   To give off smoke. Of a fire in a fireplace, to emit smoke outward instead of up the chimney, owing to imperfect draught.

5. 5

   To give off smoke. 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."

   "Dry tobacco burns even, and therefore smokes cool."

6. 6

   To preserve or prepare (food) for consumption by treating with smoke.

   You'll need to smoke the meat for several hours.

7. 7

   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.

8. 8

   obsoleteTo fill or scent with smoke; hence, to fill with incense; to perfume.

9. 9

   obsoleteTo make unclear or blurry.

   Smoke your bits of glass, Ye loyal Swine, or her transfiguration Will blind your wondering eyes.

10. 10

    slangTo perform (e.g. music) energetically or skillfully.

    The horn section was really smokin' on that last tune.

11. 11

    slangTo beat someone at something; to be very good at something.

    We smoked them at rugby.

    She's gotta do that song, she outright smokes when she hits the refrain!

    Super Macho Man: 'I DON'T SMOKE... BUT TONIGHT I'M GONNA SMOKE YOU!'

    "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."

12. 12

    slangTo 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.”

    I had never met my father, and Precious's daddy had gotten smoked before she was even born.

13. 13

    obsoleteTo thrash; to beat.

14. 14

    obsoleteTo smell out; to hunt out; to find out; to detect.

    He was first smoked by the old Lord Lafeu.

    I alone / Smok'd his true person, talk'd with him.

    Upon that […] I began to smoke that they were a parcel of mummers.

    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. […]

15. 15

    obsoleteTo ridicule to the face; to mock.

16. 16

    To burn; to be kindled; to rage.

    The anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man.

17. 17

    To raise a dust or smoke by rapid motion.

    Proud of his steeds, he smokes along the field.

18. 18

    To suffer severely; to be punished.

    Some of you shall smoke for it in Rome.

19. 19

    slangTo punish (a person) for a minor offense by excessive physical exercise.

20. 20

    To cover (a key blank) with soot or carbon to aid in seeing the marks made by impressioning.

Forms

plural

smokes

past tense

smoked

past participle

smoked, smoken

present participle

smoking

third person singular

smokes