smite
Americanverb (used with object)
-
smites,
present (3rd person singular)
-
smote,
past participle, past
-
smit,
past (Obsolete)
-
smitten,
past participle
-
smiting
present participle
-
to strike or hit hard, with or as with the hand, a stick, or other weapon.
She smote him on the back with her umbrella.
-
to deliver or deal (a blow, hit, etc.) by striking hard.
-
to strike down, injure, or slay.
His sword had smitten thousands.
-
to afflict or attack with deadly or disastrous effect.
smitten by polio.
-
to affect mentally or morally with a sudden pang.
His conscience smote him.
-
to affect suddenly and strongly with a specified feeling.
They were smitten with terror.
-
to impress favorably; charm; enamor.
He was smitten by her charms.
verb (used without object)
-
smites,
present (3rd person singular)
-
smote,
past participle, past
-
smit,
past (Obsolete)
-
smitten,
past participle
-
smiting
present participle
idioms
verb
-
to strike with a heavy blow or blows
-
to damage with or as if with blows
-
to afflict or affect severely
smitten with flu
-
to afflict in order to punish
-
to strike forcibly or abruptly
the sun smote down on him
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
smitesimple
-
smitessimple
-
have smittenperfect
-
have smoteperfect
-
has smittenperfect
-
has smoteperfect
-
am smitingprogressive
-
are smitingprogressive
-
is smitingprogressive
-
have been smitingperfect progressive
-
has been smitingperfect progressive
Past
-
smitsimple
-
smotesimple
-
had smittenperfect
-
had smoteperfect
-
was smitingprogressive
-
were smitingprogressive
-
had been smitingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of smite
First recorded before 900; Middle English smiten, Old English smītan; cognate with German schmeissen “to throw,” Dutch smijten
Explanation
To smite is to strike with a heavy blow. If you’re playing an ancient Norse warrior in a play, you might get to smite your enemy with a club. Smite comes from the old English for striking or smearing. You’re most likely to find it reading Biblical stories or mythologies, for example, where the thunderbolt of Zeus smites some misbehaving Greek fellow. The past participle of this verb is the cool word smitten, which is what you say about someone who's fallen head over heels for something or someone, that is, their emotions have been struck.
Vocabulary lists containing smite
The Hobbit
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
"To Build a Fire," Vocabulary from the short story
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Beowulf vocabulary
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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.
See Examples For:
“Curtis and I served together in the state Senate, he is your state senator. He is Republican. I am a Democrat. But when we team up in a bipartisan manner, we will smite evil.”
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 25, 2024
On it, we hear a 31-year-old woman impersonating her 19-year-old self reflecting on her 15-year-old self, and doing it all to smite the men who hoped to seize control of her songs.
From New York Times ● Dec. 22, 2021
Will he lose his head, or is the Green Knight’s bark worse than his smite?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2021
A number of religious texts speak of stones from heaven, which sometimes arrived at opportune moments to smite the enemies of the authors of those texts.
From Textbooks ● Oct. 13, 2016
The idea clearly was that the colonists, enraged by the putative assault, would rise up and smite Massasoit.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Indecent exposure … Fantasy author Terry Goodkind has publicly castigated a pirate of his ebook Wizard hero Richard Rahl smites wrongdoers with his Sword of Truth.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 11, 2012
"He plays silly shots to get out and bowls lots of pies but inbetween times he smites big sixes and bowls unplayable deliveries."
From The Guardian ● Jan. 12, 2011
Pareja nods away a long high ball, but it drops out to the onrushing Russian, who smites the thing first time, dipping and fizzing past Dykan in the Spartak goal.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 19, 2010
For all the bustle and flash in the trailer for this high-tech retake of the '60s series, the revelation that smites you is: Tom Cruise has a very large nose.
From Time Magazine Archive
This is a phenomenon only seen in severe droughts, and when the sunlight smites through a gap in the greenery at a certain angle.
From By Veldt and Kopje by W. C. (William Charles) Scully
If e’er Detraction shore to smit you, May nane believe him!
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
I declare, said my uncle Toby, smit with pity, I know of none; unless it be the pleasure which it has pleased God—— A fiddlestick! quoth she.
From The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
Iris answered: "Go thou to the trench, and show thyself To them of Troy, that, haply smit with fear, They may desist from battle."
From The Story of Troy by Michael Clarke
"Dear lassie," he cried, "I am smit wi' your charms, Consent but to marry me now, I 'm as good as ever laid hair upon thairms, An' I 'll cheer baith the fiddle an' you."
From The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume I. The Songs of Scotland of the past half century by Charles Rogers
The god of Love at her approach Is busy as a bee; Hearts sound as any bell or roach, Are smit and sigh like me.
From The Book of Humorous Verse by Carolyn Wells
I’ve never touched a gun nor smote anything larger than a stink bug.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 18, 2025
So went Robert Downey Jr. from the presence of Jimmy Fallon and smote the entire internet with an unwatchable video.
From Slate ● Apr. 26, 2018
Johnson, the Hall of Famer, famously smote a bird in flight with a spring training pitch in 2001.
From New York Times ● Aug. 18, 2017
In which arena rock was smote upside the backside by the punk movement.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 8, 2016
Fearfully he took a few uncertain steps in the dark, and then all at once there came a flash of red that leaped upward, and smote the high black roof.
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Parkin encouraged people to watch the phenomenon, himself profoundly affected by seeing his first eclipse that had left him "smitten".
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
Carolyn Travis was smitten by a man she met in an entrepreneurship course.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Seconds after her aspirant boyfriend, Bear, snaps the One Wish Willow to make her fall in love with him, she walks back out of her house, a little sheepish and newly smitten.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
But he quickly was smitten with the game and the tournament — so much so he has attended every World Cup since 1990.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2026
Like many people who encountered Blake in the weeks and months after his return from Korea, Allan found herself smitten by the young war hero.
From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau
Mr. Harbour shines as the jolly, but surprisingly in shape, fat man smiting foes with a Christmas star, icicles and even a lethal candy cane.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 3, 2023
“Even in Akhenaten’s time, so much of her iconography was that of a male king, smiting enemies and doing things like that.”
From Scientific American ● Nov. 4, 2022
There is a kind of literary symmetry to Ms. Newman’s smiting her former boss with the very tools he taught her to use.
From New York Times ● Feb. 9, 2018
Sure they’re great for smiting your enemies, but I bet they’re also perfect for quickly taking you to a tropical getaway.
From The Verge ● Jun. 28, 2016
There were beds ringing, docks smiting in belfries, standards floating—until the whole air above them seemed to be alive.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
