smeddum
Britishnoun
-
any fine powder
-
spirit or mettle; vigour
Etymology
Origin of smeddum
Old English smedema fine flour
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But with a little smeddum, or spirit, Scots could be saved – and celebrated.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 4, 2010
They were baith bred to mainers by the beuk, and onie ane o’ them had as muckle smeddum and rumblegumtion as the half o’ some presbytries that you and I baith ken.
From The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. With a New Life of the Poet, and Notices, Critical and Biographical by Allan Cunningham by Robert Burns
He'll want smeddum and manly discipline; that's the stuff to make the soldier.
From Gilian The Dreamer His Fancy, His Love and Adventure by Neil Munro
It wasn't your father—he hasn't the smeddum of a flea—but he wouldn't send you to do what he dassn't do himself.
From Rainbow Valley by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery
A braw doon-settin' 'twas for Jock, An' for a while it paid him, For wi's great muckle nieves like mells He pit in banes wi' smeddum.
From The Auld Doctor and other Poems and Songs in Scots by David Rorie
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
