smock
- a loose, lightweight overgarment worn to protect the clothing while working.
- to clothe in a smock.
- to draw (a fabric) by needlework into a honeycomb pattern with diamond-shaped recesses.
Origin of smock
Examples from the Web for smock
Contemporary Examples
His signature blue jacket is a Parisian street sweeper's smock purchased on his semi-annual trips to Paris.
Merritt Wever is adorable and believable as Zoey, a nervous first-year nursing student so callow she has bunnies on her smock.
Historical Examples
There is another ahead of him there, with the head of a scythe inside his smock.
Micah ClarkeArthur Conan Doyle
Mist, a contraction of commission, signifying a shirt, smock or sheet.
"Quite right, Lorenzo," said Flamby, throwing her smock on to a stool.
The Orchard of TearsSax Rohmer
He was dressed in a sort of smock that was much torn, and held in his hand a stout staff.
ChildhoodLeo Tolstoy
In 1873 the name was shortened to Smock and it so appears today.
The Peaches of New YorkU. P. Hedrick
smock
- any loose protective garment, worn by artists, laboratory technicians, etc
- a woman's loose blouse-like garment, reaching to below the waist, worn over slacks, etc
- Also called: smock frock a loose protective overgarment decorated with smocking, worn formerly esp by farm workers
- archaic a woman's loose undergarment, worn from the 16th to the 18th centuries
- to ornament (a garment) with smocking
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for smock
n.
Old English smoc "garment worn by women, corresponding to the shirt on men," from Proto-Germanic *smukkaz (cf. Old Norse smokkr "a smock," but this is perhaps from Old English; Old High German smoccho "smock," a rare word; North Frisian smok "woman's shift," but this, too, perhaps from English).
Klein's sources, Barnhart and the OED see this as connected to a group of Germanic sm- words having to do with creeping or pressing close, e.g. Old Norse smjuga "to creep (through an opening), to put on (a garment)," smuga "narrow cleft to creep through; small hole;" Old Swedish smog "a round hole for the head;" Old English smugan, smeogan "to creep," smygel "a burrow." Cf. also German schmiegen "to cling to, press close, nestle;" and Schmuck "jewelry, adornments," from schmucken "to adorn," literally "to dress up."
Watkins, however, traces it to a possible Germanic base *(s)muk- "wetness," figuratively "slipperiness," from PIE root*meug- "slimy, slippery" (see mucus). Either way, the original notion, then, seems generally to have been "garment one creeps or slips into," by the same pattern that produced sleeve and slip (n.2).
Now replaced by euphemistic shift (n.2); smock was the common word down to 18c., and was emblematic of womanhood generally, cf. verb smock "to render (a man) effeminate or womanish" (1610s); smocker "man who consorts with women" (18c.); smock-face "person having a pale, effeminate face" (c.1600). A smock-race (1707) was an old country pastime, a foot-race for women and girls with a smock as a prize. Modern meaning "woman's or child's loose dress or blouse" is from 1907; sense of "loose garment worn by artists over other clothes" is from 1938.