smoking
Variant of smoke
smoke
definition
smoke (smōk)
noun
- vaporous matter arising from something burning and made visible by minute particles of carbon suspended in it
- a mass or cloud of this
- any vapor, fume, mist, etc. resembling smoke
- ☆ an act or period of smoking tobacco, etc. time out for a smoke
- something to smoke, as a cigarette or pipeful of tobacco
- something without substance, significance, or lasting reality
- something that beclouds or obscures
- a dusky gray
- Physical Chem. a suspension of solid particles in a gas
Etymology: ME < OE smoca, akin to Ger schmauch < IE base *smeukh-, to smoke > Gr smychein, to smolder, Ir mūch, smoke
intransitive verb smoked, smoking smok′·ing
- to give off smoke or a smokelike substance
- to discharge smoke in the wrong place, esp. into a room: said of a furnace, fireplace, etc.
- to give off too much smoke: said of a lamp, type of fuel, etc.
- Now Rare to move very rapidly, esp. so as to raise dust
- to draw the smoke of tobacco, etc. into the mouth, and often lungs, and blow it out again
- to be a habitual smoker
transitive verb
- to stain or color with smoke
- to treat (meat, fish, etc.) with smoke, as in flavoring or curing
- to fumigate as with smoke
- to drive or force into the open with or as with smoke; force out of hiding, secrecy, etc.: often with out
- to stupefy or stun (bees, etc.) with smoke
- to draw the smoke of or from (tobacco, a pipe, etc.) into the mouth, and often lungs, and blow it out again
- Archaic to detect or be suspicious of
- Obsolete to tease or mock
Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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