smokey
1 Americannoun
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smokeys
plural
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an officer or officers of a state highway patrol.
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a state police car.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of smokey
An Americanism dating back to 1970–75; shortened from Smokey Bear, a cartoon bear used in the U. S. Forest Service's fire prevention campaign, depicted wearing a hat similar to those worn by state police officers
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:
Over a simple acoustic backing, he reminisces about "smokey bars and cheap guitars", observing that while Liverpool is always changing, "nothing can erase the days we left behind".
From BBC ● Mar. 26, 2026
“You get the sweet and sour taste from the dressing, and you get the smokey grilled flavor from the sausage, combined with the crunchy bread. Hot dogs cover most of your taste cravings.”
From Salon ● Nov. 18, 2024
This hot, mineral-rich, and often smokey water seeks the most pervious path through the Earth's crust and encounters cold, oxygen-rich water at the sea floor.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 15, 2024
Sunday is calling for a similar high with temperatures reaching the mid to low 80s, but with smokey skies moving that could change.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 19, 2023
Now, with Mrs. Frisby’s help, he forced open Brutus’s mouth and poured in just a few drops of the smokey liquid the bottle contained.
From "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" by Robert C. O'Brien
Park Service "smokeys" tend to be crowd-control specialists, while mountaineers tend to be sentimental anarchists, so the latter may view Farabee's remarks with high suspicion.
From Time Magazine Archive
Still, like the Romans' feathered friends, the smokeys can help assure a restful night.
From Time Magazine Archive
The sky outside seemed even smokier than before.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 13, 2025
But its profile leans sweeter, smokier and more savory — thanks to a couple forms of pepper, sharp white onion and a certain '90s throwback ingredient that may surprise some.
From Salon ● Feb. 22, 2023
The darker, the peatier, the smokier, the better.
From New York Times ● Jan. 23, 2023
“Heat pumps provide an opportunity to transition off of gas, but they’re also a climate resilience measure,” she said, cooling and purifying homes in hotter and smokier summers.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 18, 2022
It had grown darker and smokier while they’d waited out the storm.
From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz
Aged Cheddar is that cheese, sharp enough to stand up to the smokiest of smoked meats.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 4, 2025
“Today it’s actually the smokiest that we’ve seen,” Nancy Phillipe, a Yosemite fire information spokesperson, said Sunday.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 10, 2022
For the smokiest, most charred flavor, grill thick planks of eggplant and then combine them with garlic, scallions, vinegar, soy sauce, fish sauce, and sesame oil.
From Salon ● Feb. 8, 2022
The new culinary spinoff “Chef’s Table: BBQ” travels the world in search of the smokiest, sauciest, rib-stickingest barbecue.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2020
Early in the sweet June morning—sweet and fair although it brooded over London, the smokiest city in the world—Cynthia was again walking in Kensington Gardens.
From A Life Sentence A Novel by Adeline Sergeant
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.
