smoke
(smōk)n.1. a. A mixture of gases and small suspended particles of soot or other solids, resulting from the burning of materials such as wood or coal.
b. A cloud of such gases and suspended particles.
c. A vapor, mist, or fume that resembles this.
2. Something insubstantial, unreal, or transitory: "What everybody echoes or in silence passes by as true to-day may turn out to be falsehood to-morrow, mere smoke of opinion" (Henry David Thoreau).
3. a. The act of smoking a form of tobacco: went out for a smoke.
b. The duration of this act.
4. Informal Tobacco in a form that can be smoked, especially a cigarette: money to buy smokes.
5. A substance used in warfare to produce a smokescreen.
6. Something used to conceal or obscure.
7. A pale to grayish blue to bluish or dark gray.
8. Baseball Pitches thrown at high velocity; fast balls: threw a lot of smoke in the early innings.
v. smoked, smok·ing, smokes
v.intr.1. a. To draw in and exhale smoke from a cigarette, cigar, or pipe: It's forbidden to smoke here.
b. To engage in smoking regularly or habitually: He smoked for years before stopping.
2. To emit smoke or a smokelike substance: chimneys smoking in the cold air.
3. To emit smoke excessively: The station wagon smoked even after the tune-up.
4. Slang a. To go or proceed at high speed.
b. To play or perform energetically: The band was really smoking in the second set.
v.tr.1. a. To draw in and exhale the smoke of (tobacco, for example): I've never smoked a panatela.
b. To do so regularly or habitually: I used to smoke filtered cigarettes.
2. To preserve (meat or fish) by exposure to the aromatic smoke of burning hardwood, usually after pickling in salt or brine.
3. a. To fumigate (a house, for example).
b. To expose (animals, especially insects) to smoke in order to immobilize or drive away.
4. To expose (glass) to smoke in order to darken or change its color.
5. Slang a. To kill; murder.
b. To defeat decisively, as in a competition.
6. Baseball To throw (a pitch) at high velocity.
Phrasal Verb: smoke out1. To force out of a place of hiding or concealment by or as if by the use of smoke.
2. To detect and bring to public view; expose or reveal: smoke out a scandal.
Idioms: go up in smoke1. To be destroyed by fire.
2. To experience complete failure in an attempt to do or achieve something: Our plans to open a bakery went up in smoke when we were unable to secure funding.
smoke and mirrors Something that deceives or distorts the truth: Your explanation is nothing but smoke and mirrors.
[Middle English, from Old English smoca.]
smok′a·ble, smoke′a·ble adj.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
smoke
(sməʊk) n1. (Chemistry) the product of combustion, consisting of fine particles of carbon carried by hot gases and air
2. (Chemistry) any cloud of fine particles suspended in a gas
3. (Brewing)
a. the act of smoking tobacco or other substances, esp in a pipe or as a cigarette or cigar
b. the duration of smoking such substances
4. (Brewing)
informal a. a cigarette or cigar
b. a substance for smoking, such as pipe tobacco or marijuana
5. something with no concrete or lasting substance: everything turned to smoke.
6. a thing or condition that obscures
7. (Colours) any of various colours similar to that of smoke, esp a dark grey with a bluish, yellowish, or greenish tinge
8. go up in smoke end up in smoke a. to come to nothing
b. to burn up vigorously
c. to flare up in anger
vb9. (intr) to emit smoke or the like, sometimes excessively or in the wrong place
10. (Brewing)
a. to draw in on (a burning cigarette, etc) and exhale the smoke
b. to use tobacco for smoking
11. (Recreational Drugs) (intr) slang to use marijuana for smoking
12. (tr) to bring (oneself) into a specified state by smoking
13. (tr) to subject or expose to smoke
14. (Cookery) (tr) to cure (meat, fish, cheese, etc) by treating with smoke
15. (tr) to fumigate or purify the air of (rooms, etc)
16. (Ceramics) (tr) to darken (glass, etc) by exposure to smoke
17. (intr) slang to move, drive, ride, etc, very fast
18. (tr) obsolete to tease or mock
19. (tr) archaic to suspect or detect
[Old English smoca (n); related to Middle Dutch smieken to emit smoke]
ˈsmokable, ˈsmokeable adj
Smoke
(sməʊk) Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
smoke
(smoʊk)
n., v. smoked, smok•ing. n. 1. the visible vapor and gases given off by a burning substance, esp. the mixture of gases and suspended carbon particles resulting from the combustion of wood or other organic matter.
2. something resembling this, as vapor or mist.
3. something unsubstantial, fleeting, or without result.
4. an obscuring condition: the smoke of controversy.
5. an act or spell of smoking something, esp. tobacco.
6. something for smoking, as a cigarette.
7. Physics, Chem. a system of solid particles suspended in a gaseous medium.
8. a bluish or brownish gray.
v.i. 9. to give off or emit smoke, as in burning.
10. to give out smoke offensively or improperly, as a stove.
11. to send forth steam or vapor, dust, or the like.
12. to draw into the mouth and puff out the smoke of tobacco or the like, as from a pipe or cigarette.
13. Slang. to move or travel with great speed.
v.t. 14. to draw into the mouth and puff out the smoke of: to smoke tobacco.
15. to use (a pipe, cigarette, etc.) in this process.
16. to expose to smoke.
17. to fumigate (rooms, furniture, etc.).
18. to cure (meat, fish, etc.) by exposure to smoke.
19. to color or darken by smoke.
20. smoke out, a. to drive from a refuge by means of smoke.
b. to force into public view or knowledge; expose.
Idioms: 1. blow smoke, a. to speak deceitfully or misleadingly.
b. to boast; exaggerate.
2. go up in smoke, to terminate without producing a result; be unsuccessful.
[before 1000; (n.) Middle English; Old English smoca, akin to Middle Dutch smoock, Middle High German smouch; (v.) Middle English smoken, Old English smocian]
smok′a•ble, smoke′a•ble, adj.
smoke′less, adj.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.