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
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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
She has a daughter, Olympia, who is 4 — nearly the age she was when she first picked up a tennis racket and started to smite opponents with it.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 9, 2022
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
She can’t summon Jason from the depths to smite the iniquitous.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2021
But he’d also expected Ashmodai to smite him on the spot, whatever smiting entailed, once he realized what Boaz had done.
From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny
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
The next moment he sees her stagger in the starlight, and his heart smites him for his cruelty.
From Doctor Cupid by Broughton, Rhoda
Earl March look'd on his dying child, And smit with grief to view her— The youth, he cried, whom I exiled Shall be restored to woo her.
From The Golden Treasury Of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language by Palgrave, Francis Turner
"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 Rogers, Charles
From nature’s birth, hence, wisdom has been smit With sweet recess, and languish’d for the shade.
From Young's Night Thoughts With Life, Critical Dissertation and Explanatory Notes by Young, Edward
Yes, Lakshmaṇ, smit with love of me Thy brother's death thou fain wouldst see.
From The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Griffith, Ralph T. H. (Ralph Thomas Hotchkin)
“Then when you’ve smit your rector on one cheek you quote the Bible to make him think he ought to turn his overcoat also.”
From Hepsey Burke by Westcott, Frank N. (Frank Noyes)
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
He pondered for a while and suddenly a thought came to him and he smote the side of his head with his palm.
From "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck
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
However, BBC Sport understands Arteta has become so smitten with the notion of signing Vinicius that he is viewed internally as the club's number one target.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 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
Pep Guardiola is so smitten by Rayan Cherki that the Manchester City boss said he wanted to kiss the "incredible" French star after his virtuoso performance in Saturday's 2-1 win at Nottingham Forest.
From Barron's ● Dec. 27, 2025
“Grow up. Become smitten with boys. Become silly, preoccupied, insecure. Forget themselves.”
From "The Titan's Curse" by Rick Riordan
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.
