n.
- a visible suspension of carbon or other particles in the air, typically one emitted from a burning substance.
- an act of smoking tobacco.
▸informal a cigarette or cigar.
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(the Smoke or the Big Smoke)
Brit. a big city, especially London.
v.
- emit smoke.
- inhale and exhale the smoke of tobacco or a drug.
- treat, fumigate, or cleanse by exposure to smoke.
▸cure or preserve (meat or fish) by exposure to smoke.
▸subdue (bees in a hive) by exposing them to smoke.
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[usu. as adj. smoked]
treat (glass) so as to darken it.
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(smoke someone/thing out)
drive someone or something out of a place by using smoke.
- N. Amer. informal kill by shooting.
- archaic make fun of.
Phrase
- go up in smoke
informal - be destroyed by fire.
- (of a plan) come to nothing.
- there's no smoke without fire
there is always some factual basis for a rumour. - smoke and mirrors
N. Amer. the use of misleading or irrelevant information to obscure or embellish the truth.
Derivative
- smokable
(also smokeable)
adj.
- smoked adj.
- smokeless adj.
- smoking adj. & n.
Etymology
OE smoca (n.), smocian (v.), from the Gmc base of smēocan ‘emit smoke’.