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View synonyms for smoke

smoke

[ smohk ]

noun

  1. the visible vapor and gases given off by a burning or smoldering substance, especially the gray, brown, or blackish mixture of gases and suspended carbon particles resulting from the combustion of wood, peat, coal, or other organic matter.
  2. something resembling this, as vapor or mist, flying particles, etc.
  3. something unsubstantial, evanescent, or without result:

    Their hopes and dreams proved to be smoke.

  4. an obscuring condition:

    the smoke of controversy.

  5. an act or spell of smoking something, especially tobacco:

    They had a smoke during the intermission.

  6. something for smoking, as a cigar or cigarette:

    This is the best smoke on the market.

  7. Slang. marijuana.
  8. Slang. a homemade drink consisting of denatured alcohol and water.
  9. Physics, Chemistry. a system of solid particles suspended in a gaseous medium.
  10. a bluish or brownish gray color.


verb (used without object)

, smoked, smok·ing.
  1. to give off or emit smoke, as in burning.
  2. to give out smoke offensively or improperly, as a stove.
  3. to send forth steam or vapor, dust, or the like.
  4. to draw into the mouth and puff out the smoke of tobacco or the like, as from a pipe or cigarette.
  5. Slang. to ride or travel with great speed.
  6. Australian.
    1. to flee.
    2. to abscond.

verb (used with object)

, smoked, smok·ing.
  1. to draw into the mouth and puff out the smoke of:

    to smoke tobacco.

  2. to use (a pipe, cigarette, etc.) in this process.
  3. to expose to smoke.
  4. to fumigate (rooms, furniture, etc.).
  5. to cure (meat, fish, etc.) by exposure to smoke.
  6. to color or darken by smoke.

verb phrase

    1. to drive from a refuge by means of smoke.
    2. to force into public view or knowledge; reveal:

      to smoke out the leaders of the spy ring.

Smoke

1

/ sməʊk /

noun

  1. the Smoke
    short for Big Smoke
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


smoke

2

/ sməʊk /

noun

  1. the product of combustion, consisting of fine particles of carbon carried by hot gases and air
  2. any cloud of fine particles suspended in a gas
    1. the act of smoking tobacco or other substances, esp in a pipe or as a cigarette or cigar
    2. the duration of smoking such substances
  3. informal.
    1. a cigarette or cigar
    2. a substance for smoking, such as pipe tobacco or marijuana
  4. something with no concrete or lasting substance

    everything turned to smoke

  5. a thing or condition that obscures
  6. any of various colours similar to that of smoke, esp a dark grey with a bluish, yellowish, or greenish tinge
  7. go up in smoke or end up in smoke
    1. to come to nothing
    2. to burn up vigorously
    3. to flare up in anger
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. intr to emit smoke or the like, sometimes excessively or in the wrong place
    1. to draw in on (a burning cigarette, etc) and exhale the smoke
    2. to use tobacco for smoking
  2. slang.
    intr to use marijuana for smoking
  3. tr to bring (oneself) into a specified state by smoking
  4. tr to subject or expose to smoke
  5. tr to cure (meat, fish, cheese, etc) by treating with smoke
  6. tr to fumigate or purify the air of (rooms, etc)
  7. tr to darken (glass, etc) by exposure to smoke
  8. slang.
    intr to move, drive, ride, etc, very fast
  9. obsolete.
    tr to tease or mock
  10. archaic.
    tr to suspect or detect
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

smoke

/ smōk /

  1. A mixture of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and other gases, usually containing particles of soot or other solids, produced by the burning of carbon-containing materials such as wood and coal.


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Derived Forms

  • ˈsmokable, adjective
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Other Words From

  • smokelike adjective
  • anti·smoke adjective noun
  • un·smoked adjective
  • un·smoking adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of smoke1

before 1000; (noun) Middle English; Old English smoca; (v.) Middle English smoken, Old English smocian
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Word History and Origins

Origin of smoke1

Old English smoca (n); related to Middle Dutch smieken to emit smoke
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Idioms and Phrases

Idioms
  1. go up / end in smoke, to terminate without producing a result; be unsuccessful:

    All our dreams went up in smoke.

More idioms and phrases containing smoke

In addition to the idiom beginning with smoke , also see chain smoker ; go up in flames (smoke) ; holy cow (smoke) ; no smoke without fire ; watch one's dust (smoke) .
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Example Sentences

The 491,000-acre August Complex Fire is now the largest blaze in state history, and statewide, a total of more than 3 million acres have gone up in smoke, a record area for a single year.

From Vox

I am constantly wondering if the tightness in my chest is panic or rage or virus or smoke.

When a shot is fired, it’s the bang that is heard, the smoke that is felt.

From Ozy

The fires fueled huge thunderclouds, which drew between 300,000 and 900,000 metric tons of smoke into the stratosphere — more smoke than any known inferno.

Maybe there’s too much smog that day from agricultural emissions in the Central Valley, or even too many locals complain that they don’t like smoke.

When it comes to the increasing number of rape allegations leveled at Bill Cosby, the smoke is becoming impenetrable.

You spice it with blues and skiffle music, and pickle it in alcohol and tobacco smoke.

“At least it keeps the mosquitoes away,” one of my table-mates said, as we watched the swooshes of smoke waft into the Havana sky.

Perhaps the guards at the Guantanamo Bay detention facilities will finally be allowed to smoke cubans, too.

So too does Inherent Vice, which is something like a love letter written in pot smoke to the Gold Coast.

The young men gathered round him and offered him a cigar, which he accepted and began to smoke.

After a bit of waiting, Mac decided that the smoke was floating from a certain direction, and we began to edge carefully that way.

The smoke from her kitchen fire rose white as she put in dry sumac to give it a start.

In most club card-rooms smoking is not permitted, but at the Pandemonium it is the fashion to smoke everywhere.

When the smoke and dust cleared away nothing stirred on the whole of that piece of ground.

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Related Words

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.

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