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.
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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
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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
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"To Build a Fire," Vocabulary from the short story
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Beowulf vocabulary
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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
He can create countless jobs with a flick of his fingers, and smite al-Qaeda leaders with the lightning that flies from his open palms.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 9, 2022
He can smite the Green Knight on the condition that, the next Christmas, he allows the knight to smite him back.
From New York Times ● Jul. 29, 2021
Will he lose his head, or is the Green Knight’s bark worse than his smite?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2021
Before I could speak or Katz could seize a log with which to smite her dead, she said, “Well, I don’t mind if I do,” and ate it in two bites.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
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
What is this strange, perplexing passion that smites the child of nature?
From Time Magazine Archive
To stand within the dewy ring Where pale death smites the bone-set blooms, And everlasting's flowers, and plumes Of mint, with aromatic wing!
From Kentucky Poems by Madison J. Cawein
How smit was poor Adelaide's heart at the sight!
From The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume II. The Songs of Scotland of the past half century by Charles Rogers
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
They enter upon their work, smit with a passion for truth.
From Brave Men and Women Their Struggles, Failures, And Triumphs by O. E. (Osgood Eaton) Fuller
But she hung back, smit with sudden maidenly modesty at the sight of two such proper young men; and so her brother danced on without her.
From Bog-Myrtle and Peat Tales Chiefly of Galloway Gathered from the Years 1889 to 1895 by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett
Next they are smit with wonder at the black shells of a wagon-load of live lobsters packed in rock-weed for the country-market.
From Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne
I’ve never touched a gun nor smote anything larger than a stink bug.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 18, 2025
Like the Boston Red Sox finally beating the Yankees in 2004, Buffalo smote their longtime nemesis in epic fashion.
From New York Times ● Jan. 16, 2022
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
In which arena rock was smote upside the backside by the punk movement.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 8, 2016
In the hushed hall it smote the suitors and all their faces changed.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
"The evidence before me clearly shows that the claimant, smitten by the defendant, had showered her with expensive gifts during their relationship," the judge said.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
Dressed in a shabby old coat and chic beret—“a look halfway between woman of mystery and lobster fisher”—Nora aims to thwart a dangerous psychopath while protecting the policeman with whom she’s increasingly smitten.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 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
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Trump is so smitten with his Florsheim dress shoes that he shod his whole Cabinet in the same footwear.
From Slate ● Mar. 14, 2026
She and Morrow shared a few classes at school, and he was smitten with her almost immediately.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
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
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
“For example, on certain relief blocks from Luxor and Karnak temples she’s shown smiting Egypt’s enemies, a position which is usually reserved for the king alone.”
From National Geographic ● Nov. 28, 2015
Thence it turned, smiting the Vale of Anduin with hail and lightning, and casting its shadow upon Minas Tirith with threat of war.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
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.
