smartn.¹

Brit.

/smɑːt/, U.S.

/smɑrt/

Forms: early Middle English smeorte (south-western), early Middle English smierte (south-east midlands), early Middle English smirte (south-west midlands), Middle English smertte, Middle English–1500s smert, Middle English–1500s smerte, late Middle English–1500s smarte, late Middle English– smart; Scottish pre-1700 smairt, pre-1700 smairte, pre-1700 smarte, pre-1700 smartt, pre-1700 1700s– smart, pre-1700 1800s smert.

Origin: Probably a variant or alteration of another lexical item. Etymon: English *smiertu.

Etymology: Probably (as implied by the early Middle English forms smirte and smierte: see note below) the reflex of an unattested Old English *smiertu, showing a feminine (originally īn- stem) derivative < the same base as smart adj. Compare (with different ablaut grade: compare smart v.¹) West Frisian smert, smerte, Middle Dutch smerte, smarte (Dutch smart), Middle Low German smerte, smērte, smarte, Old High German smerza (Middle High German smerze, German Schmerz), and also ( < Middle Low German smerte or its later reflex) Swedish smärta, Danish smerte.The early Middle English forms smirte and smierte suggest that their unattested Old English antecedent showed i-mutation. The Old English word was perhaps an abstract formation from the (o -grade) base of smart adj. of the same derivational pattern as ieldu eld n.² (from eald old adj.); the expected forms (showing breaking and subsequent i-mutation) would be early West Saxon *smiertu , Anglian *smertu . However, the rare early Middle English form smeorte appears to show the reflex of Old English *smeort- , so it remains possible that the word instead derives from the (e -grade) base of (the present stem of) smart v.¹, which (after i-mutation) would yield Mercian *smeort- (beside West Saxon *smiert- , Northumbrian *smiort- ). (Although this derivation would allow the Old English word to share the same ablaut grade of the base as its continental Germanic cognates, none of them shows any evidence of the i or j suffix required for i-mutation.) Furthermore, it is also entirely possible that the form smeorte may simply show later analogical influence of the (unmutated) present stem of the verb; similar influence of forms of smart v.¹ is probably also seen in the adjective (see discussion of forms of smart adj.).

a. Sharp, often intense, physical pain, esp. such as is caused by an external agency (a blow, sting, etc.) or by a wound; (also) an instance of this.

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > ill health > pain > types of pain > [noun] > smarting or stinging

stingc900

smartingOE

smarta1225

stanginga1300

stinging1398

mordicationa1413

stang1513

urtication1655

smartness1682

verberation1688

mordicancy1693

a1225 (?c1175) Poema Morale (Lamb.) 114 in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1868) 1st Ser. 167 (MED) Wa se seið þet he bo hal him solf wat best his smirte [a1200 Trin. Cambr. smierte, a1225 Egerton smeorte, ?c1250 Egerton smerte].

c1330 (?c1300) Bevis of Hampton (Auch.) l. 4193 (MED) For smertte Yuor in þat stounde Fel a knes vnto þe grounde.

c1390 Castle of Love (Vernon) (1967) l. 1155 (MED) For vre woke þouȝtes he þolede smerte.

1493 Chastysing Goddes Chyldern (de Worde) v. sig. Avi/1 It felt noo smerte sharply tyll the rodde came.

a1500 (a1450) Generides (Trin. Cambr.) l. 6242 For eny wo or smerte..I wist hym neuer on kynde.

a1530 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfeccyon (1531) iii. f. CCiiii^v Yf he had pretended to suffre payne, & had feled no smarte.

1585 T. Washington tr. N. de Nicolay Nauigations Turkie ii. vi. 36 She procureth present death wythout any smart.

1641 J. Jackson True Evangelical Temper i. 46 He..inflicted both corporall smart and pecuniary mulcts upon them.

1681 R. Baxter Apol. Nonconformists Ministry 58 We knew it by our smarts, being sure to be whipt.

1717 A. Pope tr. Homer Iliad III. xi. 574 Raging with intolerable Smart, He writhes his Body.

1792 W. Cowper in Yearly Bill Mortality Parish All-Saints (Northampton) 1791–2 (single sheet) Strange world—that costs it so much Smart.

1817 S. T. Coleridge Biogr. Lit. II. xxviv. 293 There is a dull underpain that survives the smart which it had aggravated.

1870 W. C. Bryant tr. Homer Iliad I. xi. 374 Patroclus..applied a root Of bitter flavor to assuage the smart.

1903 ‘M. Harland’ Compl. Cook Bk. 13 Ammonia, applied instantly, neutralizes the venom and eases the smart.

1964 E. Waugh Little Learning ix. 230 Before I reached the point of no return, the Shropshire Lad was disturbed by a smart on the shoulder.

2012 L. Robinson Unclaimed Bride iii. 49 Ignoring the smart in her palm, she grabbed a towel before attempting to lift the pot this time.

b. With of (the cause of the pain). Also in figurative contexts.

ΚΠ

1477 W. Caxton tr. R. Le Fèvre Hist. Jason (1913) 184 Whan Iason sawe his hors dede & that he felt the smarte of the sore in his hede.

a1530 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfeccyon (1531) iii. f. CCiiii^v He suffred the sharpnes & smart of payne, ye suche as neuer was suffred.

1596 Bp. W. Barlow tr. L. Lavater Three Christian Serm. iii. 142 Euen the Prophets..haue felt the smart of hunger.

a1604 M. Hanmer Chron. Ireland 32 in J. Ware Two Hist. Ireland (1633) Ireland..felt little smart of the Romane sword.

1668 J. Denham Poems 115 Ah cruel Love!.. Again she feels the smart Of a fresh wound from his tyrannick Dart.

1726 J. Swift Gulliver I. i. i. 16 When I felt the smart of their Arrows upon my Face.

1749 J. Cleland Mem. Woman of Pleasure II. 159 The smart of the lashes was now converted into such a prickly heat, such fiery tinglings, as made me sigh.

1830 Olio 4 18/2 But the smart of a wound is felt no longer than while it lasts, and I soon forgot this mutilation.

1885 R. F. Burton tr. Arabian Nights' Entertainm. I. xxix. 296 For the smart of the stick I confessed, ‘It was I who stole it.’

1922 Boys' Life Feb. 14/3 The smart of the arrows annoys him. He pulls the one in his foreleg and throws it savagely in the air.

1969 Life 24 Oct. 37/3 There should be more than a touch of remorse to add to the smart of the self-inflicted wounds.

2007 A. Browning Millionaire's Marriage Revenge 26 The first shock was passing and pent-up emotion rose to choke her throat and bring the smart of tears to her eyes.

†c. Degree of smarting or painfulness. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > ill health > pain > types of pain > [noun] > smarting or stinging > degree of smarting

smart1888

1888 ‘Bernard’ From World to Cloister v. 114 The discipline,..at its highest possible smart, never equalled..the sting of such a caning.

a. Mental pain or suffering; grief, sorrow, affliction; (sometimes) suffering of the nature of punishment or retribution. Also: an instance of this, a pang.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > suffering > [noun]

sorec888

teeneOE

sorrowOE

workOE

wrakeOE

careOE

gramec1000

harmOE

howc1000

trayOE

woweOE

angec1175

derfnessc1175

sytec1175

unwinc1175

wosithc1200

ail?c1225

barrat?c1225

derf?c1225

grief?c1225

misease?c1225

misliking?c1225

ofthinkingc1225

passion?c1225

troublec1230

pinec1275

distress1297

grievancea1300

penancea1300

cumbermentc1300

languorc1300

cumbering1303

were1303

angera1325

strifea1325

sweama1325

woea1325

painc1330

tribulationc1330

illa1340

threst1340

constraintc1374

troublenessc1380

afflictiona1382

bruisinga1382

miseasetya1382

pressurec1384

exercisec1386

miscomfortc1390

mislikea1400

smarta1400

thronga1400

balec1400

painfulnessc1400

troublancec1400

smartness?c1425

painliness1435

perplexity?a1439

penalty?1462

calamity1490

penality1496

cumber?a1513

sussy1513

tribule1513

afflict?1529

vexation of spirit1535

troublesomeness1561

hoe1567

grievedness1571

tribulance1575

languishment1576

thrall1578

tine1590

languorment1593

aggrievedness1594

obturbation1623

afflictedness1646

erumny1657

pathos1684

shock1705

dree1791

vex1815

wrungnessa1875

dukkha1886

thinkache1892

sufferation1976

the mind > emotion > suffering > sorrow or grief > [noun]

rueeOE

teeneOE

sorrowOE

gramec1000

sytec1175

ruthc1225

dolea1240

balec1275

sighinga1300

dolour13..

ermingc1300

heartbreakc1330

discomfortc1350

griefa1375

tristourc1380

desolation1382

sichinga1387

tristesse1390

compassiona1400

rueinga1400

smarta1400

displeasure14..

gremec1400

heavity14..

dillc1420

notea1425

discomforturec1450

dolefulnessc1450

wandremec1450

regratec1485

doleance1490

trista1510

mispleasance1532

pathologiesa1586

balefulness1590

drearing1591

distressedness1592

woenessa1600

desertion1694

ruesomeness1881

schmerz1887

a1400 (c1303) R. Mannyng Handlyng Synne (Harl.) l. 3964 Ȝyf þou..felyst weyl yn þy herte Of a lytyl sorow or smerte.

c1405 (c1395) G. Chaucer Canon's Yeoman's Tale (Ellesmere) (1875) l. 712 And yet for al my smert and al my grief For al my sorwe, labour, and meschief I koude neuere leue it in no wise.

a1450 Generides (Pierpont Morgan) (1865) l. 1632 To tel you hou I caght this smert, And al myn evel hou it began.

?1533 G. Du Wes Introductorie for to lerne Frenche sig. Ei A man doutfull..is sone conuerted and tourned in smerte.

1590 E. Spenser Faerie Queene i. i. sig. B2^v Ne let vaine feares procure your needlesse smart, Where cause is none.

1647 A. Cowley Love's Visibility in Mistress v The very Eye betrays our inward smart.

1679 J. Bunyan Fear of God 102 Sorrow is the effect of smart, and smart the effect of faith.

1715 R. Nelson Addr. Persons of Quality 24 The Anguish and Smart that flows from Your Sins chain you to the Oar.

1766 T. Gray Let. 23 Sept. (1971) III. 936 Time..will cure the smart, & in some hearts soon blot out all the traces of sorrow.

1809 H. More Cœlebs in Search of Wife (ed. 2) II. xliv. 120 Examine your own heart;..it will be a salutary smart.

1872 J. S. Blackie Lays of Highlands 3 I love the oaks of Derry, And to leave them gives me smart.

1919 W. B. Yeats Wild Swans at Coole (new ed.) 5 There is salt to lengthen out the smart In the affections of our heart.

1963 Huntington Libr. Q. 26 310 In the reasonable voice of Colin he seeks to heal over the smarts and gouges he may have inflicted.

2005 K. Grenville Secret River iv. 217 The other smart, the one somewhere in his heart, was soon soothed by the feel of his wife's body in his arms, her breath in his ear.

b. With of (the cause of the suffering).

ΚΠ

a1450 (c1412) T. Hoccleve De Regimine Principum (Harl. 4866) (1897) l. 106 (MED) Þe smert of þoght, I..knowe..His frosty swoot & fyry hote feruence.

a1500 Lancelot of Laik (1870) 1051 So prikith hyme the smart Of hevynes, that stood vnto his hart.

a1591 H. Smith 6 Serm. (1592) 44 He came..when man had sinned, that he might feele the smart of sinne.

1631 W. Gouge Gods Three Arrowes iii. §58. 298 No marvell then that they..be made sensibly to feele the smart of their folly.

1702 Eng. Theophrastus 141 All parties blame persecution when they feel the smart on't.

1827 H. Hallam Constit. Hist. Eng. I. i. 22 Some were sent to prison for hasty words, to which the smart of injury excited them.

1874 Pop. Sci. Monthly Jan. 321 We wonder to how many persons it is still a necessity, under the smart of a sudden disappointment, to..relieve the pressure of emotion by a few energetic expletives?

1916 J. Joyce Portrait of Artist v. 221 He felt with a smart of dejection that the man to whom he was speaking was a countryman of Ben Jonson.

1990 S. Winston Summer Conf. 69 A desire to be printed, to see a byline, outweighed in some degree the disappointment, the smart of having no voice in the sale as any huckster might.

2011 C. J. Singley Adopting Amer. ii. 44 No doubt William felt the smart of Deborah's rejection.

†c. In plural. Loss, damage; adversity. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > adversity > [noun] > circumstance or occurrence

plightc1300

woea1325

fanda1400

afflictionc1429

assayc1430

brier?1504

trouble?1521

distress1549

smarts1552

say?1572

infliction1590

disaccommodation1645

trial1754

ordeal1807

time1809

kill-cow1825

Via Crucis1844

Via Dolorosa1844

racket1877

pisser1957

1552 T. Barnabe Let. 1 Oct. in J. Strype Ann. Reformation (1824) VI. 486 Yf chance should fal..that a ship should be lost, the halls might easily bear the smarts therof.

1591 H. Savile tr. Tacitus Ende of Nero: Fower Bks. Hist. ii. 90 Neither did shee..participate any thing els of hir sonnes estate, saue onely the smarts of hir house when it fell.

3. Short for smart money n.¹; (also) a sum of this. Now historical and rare.

ΘΚΠ

society > trade and finance > fees and taxes > ransom > [noun] > payment for discharge of recruit

ticketa1599

smart money1760

smart1802

1802 C. James New Mil. Dict. Smarts, the different sums which are received by recruiting parties under the head of Smart money, are frequently so called.

1826 W. N. Glascock Naval Sketch-bk. II. 28 Get hurt in their service—lose a finger or fin by the chime of a cask in the hold—or fall from aloft, and fracture your pate—then see where's your pension or ‘smart’.

1887 D. Donaldson Jamieson's Sc. Dict. Suppl. 321/1 He listed.., but paid the smert and wan hame.

a1902 A. B. Davidson Waiting upon God (1904) xi. 266 We are fond of saying He paid our debts; He was our surety, our cautioner; He paid the smart of our arrears and defalcations.

1941 J. A. Williamson Ocean in Eng. Hist. iv. 105 James I allowed the interloper Sir Edward Michelborne to sail to the East and commit piracies for which the Company paid the smart.

Compounds

smartgrass n. U.S. = smartweed n.

ΘΚΠ

the world > plants > particular plants > plants and herbs > according to family > Polygonaceae (dock and allies) > [noun] > bistort and allies

adderwortOE

arsesmarta1300

persicarya1400

persicaria?a1450

polygonya1500

buckwheat1548

polygonum1562

passions1568

bistort1578

oysterloit1578

goat's wheat1597

peachwort1597

plumbago1597

redshank1597

snake-weed1597

dragonwort1656

smartweed1787

patience dock1796

red-legs1820

passion dock1828

smartgrass1837

mud knotweed1845

jointweed1866

tear-thumb1866

pinch-weed1883

knotweed1884

sachaline1901

1837 Thomsonian Recorder 5 174/1 Smart grass will render fresh meat sweet even after it has commenced decomposition.

1901 Outing Dec. 344 They..set about the improvement of duck shooting by sowing wild rice and smart grass.

1997 Kerrville (Texas) Daily Times 30 Jan. 8 a/4 During the drought, a lot of millet and smartgrass grew around the big reservoirs.

smart ticket n. Nautical (now historical) a certificate signed by a ship's surgeon entitling a sailor to a payment or pension in compensation for a disability or injury suffered while in service; cf. smart money n.¹ 1a.

ΘΚΠ

society > armed hostility > military organization > [noun] > specific certificates

pass1617

beating-order1721

smart ticket1734

papers1872

society > authority > lack of subjection > permission > [noun] > formal or authoritative permission > a formal or authoritative permission

safe conduct?1404

licence1433

royalty1633

fiat1647

licent1676

liceat1686

privilege1715

sanction1720

smart ticket1734

post warrant1812

sanctionment1818

wine-warrant1857

carnet1926

1734 Regulations H.M. Service at Sea (ed. 2) iii. 132 He is to provide himself, before his going on board, with..a sufficient Number of Smart Tickets from the Office of the Clerk of the Acts.

1801 Ld. Nelson Let. 11 Oct. in Dispatches & Lett. (1845) IV. 504 I will send to the Gannet for Smart Tickets.

1881 Army & Navy Mag. Oct. 1155 The surgeon..was under the displeasure of the mutineers, because he had refused smart tickets to some of them that he thought were not entitled to them.

1991 P. O'Brian Nutmeg of Consol. (1993) iv. 101 He had..his proper discharge, smart-ticket and a commendation from his captain.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2013; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

smartn.²

Brit.

/smɑːt/, U.S.

/smɑrt/

Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: smart adj.

Etymology: < smart adj.

1. A person who affects smartness in dress, manners, or speech. Frequently somewhat derogatory. Now rare.Common in 18th cent.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > attention and judgement > fashionableness > [noun] > smart person

a man of (the first) feather1592

pink1602

smart1709

flasher1755

swell1786

dasher1807

smarty1847

city slicker1914

Roy1960

1709 J. Addison Tatler No. 157. ⁋16 Mr. Bickerstaff..summons all his Disciples, whether..Toasts, Smarts,..Musicians or Scrapers, to make their Appearance at the Playhouse.

1712 R. Steele Spectator No. 442. ⁋3 All Beaux, Rakes, Smarts,..and all Sorts of Wits.

1726 N. Amhurst Terræ-filius (ed. 2) II. xlvi. 93 I have given great offence to a large body of fine gentlemen there, call'd Smarts.

1753 Scots Mag. Oct. 491/2 I put on a sword, supped every night at a tavern,..and was universally confessed to be improved into a Smart.

1821 W. Scott Pirate II. i. 15 The word passed through among the young Templars, and the wits, and the smarts.

1859 J. R. Green Oxf. during Last Cent. ii. iii. 55/2 The smart of the day [sc. in the 18th cent.] rises late in an age of early risers.

1987 Daily Tel. 28 Oct. 17 Exit the Sloanes, enter the Smarts... Always to be perfectly dressed, shiningly healthy and to have the latest kind of designer water in all the guest bedrooms.

2. With the and plural agreement. Those who are neat, clever, witty, etc.; smart people or things as a class (in various senses of smart adj. II.).

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > knowledge, what is known > [noun] > knowledgeable persons

smart1865

1831 Examiner 23 Jan. 54/2 For the admirers of the smart, and the modern, and the whimsical, there are the Pavilion and new buildings at Brighton.

1865 Manch. Guardian 20 Sept. 3/5 In this race, the smart and the strong go ahead; the timid or the dull go to the wall.

1892 Rev. of Reviews June 587/2 This latter class [sc. talented people] must have the further..talent for..amusing the rich, the smart, and the pretty.

1928 Rotarian Apr. 11/1 We are living in a somewhat jazzy age. The smart and the flippant seem very much to the front.

1957 T. Gunn Sense of Movement 22 The smart are dead waist-down.

2004 Utne Reader Aug. 90/1 The Blogosphere—a land where the smart get smarter, the connected get even more connected, and the losers go home.

†3. Smartness in speech or writing, esp. of a forced or artificial nature. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > wit, wittiness > [noun] > brilliancy of wit or language > in conversation, writing

wit1542

salt1574

smartness1643

esprita1797

smart1845

society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > inelegance > [adjective] > forced

high-strained1565

constrained1571

forced1583

overstrained1599

strained1609

epitonic1879

smart1899

1845 Ld. Tennyson Let. Oct. (1982) I. 249 I said something that offended him and..he..told me that I was ‘affecting the smart’.

1899 Westm. Gaz. 25 Oct. 3/2 This needless introduction of the presumably ‘smart’ would ruin the art of any novel.

4. colloquial.

a. Originally and chiefly North American.

(a) In plural. Intelligence, esp. natural intelligence; cleverness, acumen, nous; wits. Chiefly with the.Also with modifying word (see also book smarts n. at book n. Compounds 3,street smarts n. at street n. and adj. Compounds 4).

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > sharpness, shrewdness, insight > [noun]

sharpnessc897

yepshipc1000

insightc1175

yepleȝȝcc1175

yephedea1250

wit1297

fellnessa1382

policyc1440

discerningc1450

policec1450

inspectiona1527

perceivance1534

aptitude1548

sagacity1548

acuity?1549

nimbleness1561

acumen1579

seeing eye1579

esprit1591

acuteness1601

depth1605

penetration1605

knowingness1611

shrewdnessa1616

piercingnessa1628

discernment1646

sharpwittedness1647

nasuteness1660

arguteness1662

sagaciousness1678

perceptivity1700

keenness1707

cuteness1768

intuition1780

recollectedness1796

long-headedness1818

perceptiveness1823

kokum1848

incision1862

incisiveness1865

penetrativeness1873

flair1881

hard-boiledness1912

smart1964

spikiness1977

sus1979

1940 Amer. Speech 15 355 Pegler..is also sure ‘we are suffering from a very bad case of the Smarts’, which means in his language that there is too much education loose in the world today.]

1964 N. Amer. Rev. Autumn 67/1 He is pretty high in the smarts dept., since he is a bonafide doctor with a degree and all that.

1968 Ebony Mar. 16 (advt.) If you're good, we'll take you on. In management. Where you can use all the smarts you picked up in college.

1972 H. Kemelman Monday Rabbi took Off xlv. 263 The whole story is a little weak... I mean, this kid of yours has the normal amount of smarts.

1981 Guardian Weekly 26 July 15/4 They complain..that the soldiers have neither the smarts nor the education to work the complicated weapons of modern warfare.

1990 Vogue Sept. 96/2 British dance acts..display the dance-floor smarts of the UK's new style scientists.

2008 S. Toltz Fraction of Whole v. 556 I think I'll leave this manuscript here..and maybe one day it'll be found and someone will have the smarts to publish it posthumously.

(b) In singular in same sense.

ΚΠ

1967 D. Hamma Motorcycle Mommas 22 Them bastards didn't have no smart at all.

1973 R. O'N. Bristow Faraway Drummer iv. 54 If you got the smart to get in bed with the queen in the first place, you can't be all thick.

1977 N.Y. Times 9 Oct. 26 Mrs. Maynard said that Mr. Miller..‘doesn't have enough smart to run a union as big as the United Mine Workers’.

1990 E. Goldrick Love is in Cards vi. 117 Nobody else have the smart to plant the root this year.

b. In plural. Programming which makes a computer capable of some independent action; the ability of a device or other machine to vary its behaviour in response to differing requirements, varying situations, or past events. Also: processing power. Cf. smart adj. 10b.

ΚΠ

1970 A. B. Veaner in Minutes 75th Meeting Assoc. Res. Libr. 18 The type of machine one can have all to oneself will probably be a stripped down model with a limited repertoire of software ‘smarts’, and accommodating few peripheral devices.

1989 Economist 2 Dec. (Surv. Japanese Technol.) 4/2 [Products] have to be packed with ‘technological smarts’—in short, be able to make decisions and remember things, optimise their own performance, even anticipate customer's whims.

2002 EnRoute Aug. 29/1 Link the smarts of millions of desktop computers together via the Internet, and you end up with the mother of all supercomputers.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

smartadj.

Brit.

/smɑːt/, U.S.

/smɑrt/

Forms: Old English–early Middle English smeart, early Middle English smært (south-west midlands), early Middle English smeort (south-western and south-west midlands), early Middle English smort (west midlands), Middle English smartt, Middle English smertt, Middle English smyrte, Middle English–1500s smerte, Middle English–1500s (1800s– regional) smert, Middle English–1600s smarte, Middle English– smart, late Middle English smrt (transmission error), late Middle English suert (transmission error), 1900s– smaart (English regional); Scottish pre-1700 smarte, pre-1700 1700s– smart, pre-1700 1900s– smert.

Origin: A word inherited from Germanic.

Etymology: < an ablaut variant (o -grade) of the same West Germanic base as smart v.¹Some of the Middle English forms probably result from association with smart v.¹ and smart n.¹ The expected reflex of Old English smeart is Middle English smart. The forms smeort, smort perhaps show influence of the present stem of smart v.¹, which reflects an original e -grade base (compare discussion of the variant smeorte at smart n.¹). The rare form smyrte suggests an antecedent with i-mutation; compare discussion of forms at smart n.¹ (and compare also forms of smart v.¹). Forms such as smert could ultimately reflect either the o -grade of the base (with i-mutation) or the e -grade; by early modern English the reflex of smert- has usually merged with the reflex of smart- (compare forms of smart n.¹ and smart v.¹ and discussion at those entries). Use of the word as a male personal name is apparently recorded for 1066 in the form Smert in Domesday Bk. (1086); also attested early as a surname, e.g. Lifwinus Smart (c1180), Hugone Smart (1209), and as a surname element, e.g. Christiana Smartknave (1279). These uses imply earlier currency of the use of the word with reference to a person (compare senses 8b, 9).

I. Painful, uncomfortable; sharp, severe, intense.

a. Of an instrument, such as a rod, whip, etc.: inflicting or causing pain; biting, stinging; (of a weapon) sharp and cutting. Now rare and chiefly in historical context.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > manner of action > violent action or operation > severity > [adjective]

heavyc825

grimc900

strongeOE

hardeOE

drearyOE

eileOE

sweerOE

deara1000

bitterOE

tartc1000

smartOE

unridec1175

sharp?c1225

straitc1275

grievousc1290

fellc1330

shrewda1387

snella1400

unsterna1400

vilea1400

importunea1425

ungainc1425

thrallc1430

peisant1483

sore?a1513

weighty1540

heinous?1541

urgent?1542

asperous?1567

dure1567

spiny1586

searching1590

hoara1600

vengible1601

flinty1613

tugging1642

atrocious1733

uncannya1774

severe1774

stern1830

punishing1833

hefty1867

solid1916

society > authority > punishment > corporal punishment > instrument or place of corporal punishment > [adjective] > inflicting pain (of instrument)

smartOE

sharpa1400

OE Homily: Sermo ad Populum Dominicis Diebus (Lamb. 489) in A. S. Napier Wulfstan (1883) 295 Ic wylle swingan eow mid þam smeartestum swipum.

a1225 (?OE) MS Vesp. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1868) 1st Ser. 243 Þu ahst to habben ehte wepnecin, þa beoð sceold, helm and brenie, swrd and spere, stede and twei sporen, and ane smearte ȝerd.

?1316 Short Metrical Chron. (Royal) l. 929 in J. Ritson Anc. Eng. Metrical Romanceës (1802) II. 309 (MED) He was yschote With an arewe kene ant smert.

a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 15785 Wit maces and wit neues smert vn-rekenli on him ran.

1447 O. Bokenham Lives of Saints (Arun.) (1938) l. 1593 Whan he on þe [MS ye] crosce..Heng nakyd, fastnyd wyth nayles smerte.

c1480 (a1400) St. Vincent l. 157 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) II. 263 In a frame [he] stent hyme..with smert cordis sa faste til senonis ore hyd ma leste.

?1567 M. Parker Whole Psalter lv. 159 Hys wordes were felt, yet were sharpe dartes and smart.

1594 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 2 iii. ii. 329 Their softest tuch as smart as lyzards stings.

1604 J. Godskall Arke of Noah sig. A3 We at diuers times haue felt this rod, and also at this present time in Flanders they doo taste of this smart-whip.

1673 J. Flavell Fountain of Life xvi. 198 Sometimes he spares their outward, and afflicts their inner man, which is a much smarter rod.

?1705 E. Hickeringill Surv. Earth 44 A Whip and Lash is of great and necessary use to slash..Offenders that debauch this vile Earth; and the smarter the better.

1796 Augusta Fitzherbert II. xxx. 65 I met one of them..dressed in a riding habit, and flourishing in her hand a smart whip, with a spur at the end.

1813 Dr. Marshall in Addr. Relative to Election in Durham 37/2 The Darlington colt, Who trainers inform me is subject to bolt: And this when he feels the smart whip on his flank.

1899 Cornish Mag. 2 394/2 Mr. Lethbridge is both master and huntsman, and is assisted by a smart whip.

1976 E. S. Morgan Meaning of Independence iii. 63 A navy would be a smart rod, for, as James Madison had earlier suggested to him, ‘A single frigate under the orders of Congress could make it the interest of any one of the Atlantic States to pay its quota.’

†b. Of land: rugged; (of an object) sharp or rough to the touch. Cf. sharp adj. 2. Obsolete. rare.

ΘΚΠ

the world > the earth > land > ground > [adjective] > rough

sharpc893

roughOE

foec1400

rupt?a1425

aspera1492

scragged1519

smarta1525

ruggeda1533

crabbed1579

broken1599

tutty-nosed1681

ruggish1838

a1525 Eng. Conquest Ireland (Trin. Dublin) (1896) 128 (MED) For hyt was smert lond, woddy, & of Marche, & ferr.

c1540 (?a1400) Gest Historiale Destr. Troy (2002) f. 16^v Þis stone..Be it smethe owþer smert smaragden hit hat.

†c. Of an instrument of pain: severe or hard on (also upon) one. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

society > authority > strictness > [adjective] > severe or stern > severe upon

smart1549

side1825

to be rough on1868

the world > action or operation > behaviour > bad behaviour > harshness or severity > [adjective] > severe upon

smart1549

side1825

1549 T. Sternhold Al Such Psalmes of Dauid xxxii. sig. Diiii Thy hande on me, So [grievous was] and smerte.

1648 Bp. J. Hall Breathings Devout Soul x. 14 When thy hand hath been smart and heavy upon me.

1679 J. Bunyan Fear of God 81 When the rod was most smart upon them, they made great conscience of giving way to their first fears wherewith they were made afraid by the Spirit.

2. Of a blow, stroke, etc.: sufficiently hard or severe to cause pain; sharp, stinging; (in later use sometimes without implication of pain being caused) delivered quickly and sharply (cf. sense 8a). Also in figurative contexts.

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > ill health > pain > [adjective] > causing pain > of a blow or weapon

smarta1200

sorea1300

sucky1934

a1200 (?OE) MS Trin. Cambr. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1873) 2nd Ser. 207 Mannes lichame ihalsneð iwis þenne me hine pined mid hunger..and mid stiue wedes next þe liche and smerte smiten of smale longe ȝerden.

c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1978) l. 10660 [They] uppen Colgrime smiten mid swiðe smærte [c1300 Otho smorte] biten.

c1330 (?c1300) Bevis of Hampton (Auch.) l. 2883 (MED) Beues þanne wiþ strokes smerte Smot þe dragoun to þe herte.

a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 25543 Iesu..Sufferd..Dintes sare and smert.

a1500 (?a1400) Sir Torrent of Portyngale (1887) l. 2472 (MED) Smert boffettes they yeldyd there.

1574 A. Golding tr. J. Calvin Serm. on Job (new ed.) cxlv. 747 When as wee feele so smart blowes, and the hand of God maketh vs to quake.

1604 W. Shakespeare Hamlet iii. i. 52 How smart a lash that speech doth giue my conscience.

1664 H. Power Exper. Philos. iii. 160 With a few smart strokes of a great Mall, or Hammer, you beat the one end of it.

1764 T. Reid Inq. Human Mind v. §6 Suppose him first to be pricked with a pin—this will, no doubt, give a smart sensation.

1789 J. Bonner Bee-master's Compan. xxiii. 219 With a knife loose the edges of the combs from the hive all around, and give the hive a smart knock on the floor.

1813 Sporting Mag. 42 68 Cooper planted a smart hit on his adversary's neck.

1859 ‘G. Eliot’ Adam Bede II. iv. xxx. 293 When a man's got his limbs whole, he can bear a smart cut or two.

1921 S. Comstock Daughter of Helen Kent i. 4 Its passengers huddled indoors, cowering from the smart whips of the December air.

1939 F. D. Tredrey Pilot's Summer 28 If you bale out and land in water..a smart rap will release the whole lot and you can swim free.

1993 Dog World June 107/1 Food is held out to the dog, and as soon as he snaps or only merely sniffs at it he is given a smart blow.

†3. Of an event, time, etc.: dreadful, dire; difficult; testing. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > fear > quality of inspiring fear > quality of terribleness > [adjective]

eislichc888

eyesfulOE

awfulc1175

smarta1200

ferlya1225

sternc1275

grisea1300

uglya1300

dreadfula1325

fell?c1335

stout1338

perilousc1380

terriblec1400

ghastfulc1449

timorous1455

epouventable1477

bedreadc1485

dreadablec1490

dreadc1540

buggisha1555

dreaded1556

monster-like1561

dire1567

scareful1567

terrifying1577

scary1582

direful1583

affrighting1592

dismal1594

affrightful1603

diral1606

tirable1607

frighting1619

scaring1641

affrighteninga1651

formidolous1656

terrific1667

terrifical1677

atrocious1733

terrorful1789

orful1845

lurid1850

terrorsome1890

turble1893

timorsome1894

like the wrath of God1936

a1200 MS Trin. Cambr. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1873) 2nd Ser. 61 (MED) Vuele he us briseð gif he binimeð us ure agte..oðer þurh orf qualm, oðer þurh smerte gier.

c1330 Simonie (Auch.) (1991) l. 392 God..sen[t]e a derþe on eorþe and made hit ful smart.

a1400 (c1303) R. Mannyng Handlyng Synne (Harl.) l. 8539 (MED) For shame he myȝt nat telle how smart Þe temptyng þat come to hys hert.

a1463 (c1440) S. Scrope tr. C. de Pisan Epist. of Othea (Pierpont Morgan) (1970) 109 Hector me must pronounce thi deeth smerte.

4. Of pain (physical or mental), sorrow, etc.: sharp, keen, painful, severe. Also of a wound or other cause of discomfort.

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > ill health > pain > [adjective] > causing pain

sorec897

smartc1300

throlya1375

snella1400

dolorousc1400

painfulc1400

sensible1502

afflictive1576

doloriferous1599

exasperated1611

dolorific1634

painable1649

algetic1879

algesic1880

paining1891

the mind > emotion > suffering > mental anguish or torment > [adjective] > severe

heavya1000

tartc1000

unridec1175

unsoftc1275

uglya1300

smartc1300

sternc1300

cruelc1384

sharpc1386

shrewda1387

snella1400

painousa1450

painlyc1460

sensible1502

terrible1509

heinous?1541

severe1747

the world > health and disease > ill health > pain > types of pain > [adjective] > relating to agony or torment > causing agony or torment

sharpc1000

grievousc1290

smartc1300

fellc1330

unsufferablea1340

keena1375

poignantc1390

rending?c1400

furiousc1405

stoutc1425

unbearablec1449

agonizing1570

tormenting1575

cruciable1578

raging1590

tormentuous1597

pungent1598

racking1598

acute1615

wrenching1618

excruciating1664

grinding1681

excruciate1773

discruciating1788

unendurable1801

of bare sufferance1823

perialgic1893

c1300 Havelok (Laud) (1868) l. 2055 And mikel sorwe in his herte For hise wundes, þat we[r] so smerte.

1372 in E. Wilson Descriptive Index Lyrics John of Grimestone's Preaching Bk. (1973) 33 (MED) Hand, heued, foot, herte Criȝet Crist for wondis smerte.

a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 58 Wyt chaunce of ded, or chaunce of hert, þat soft began has endyng smart.

c1450 ( G. Chaucer Bk. Duchess (Fairf. 16) (1871) l. 507 Hym thought hys sorwes were so smerte.

1513 G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneid v. xii. 63 The fadir Eneas, smyt with this smart cais.

1562 A. Brooke tr. M. Bandello Tragicall Hist. Romeus & Iuliet f. 50^v And though with greater payne she cloked sorowes smart: Yet did her paled face disclose the passions of her hart.

1678 Lively Oracles iii. §5. 264 That long train of smart calamities which succeeded his sin.

1688 J. Bunyan Good News for Vilest of Men 75 The Gospel..threatneth them with the heaviest and smartest Judgments.

1740 Athenæum 24 Sept. 1887 The whey..gives me pretty smart colicks.

1753 S. Richardson Hist. Sir Charles Grandison I. 187 Sir Rowland took notice, that I must have had a smart illness for the time, by my alter'd countenance.

1826 S. T. Coleridge Coll. Lett. (1971) VI. 648 Henry suffered a Relapse..with a smart attack of fever, oppression on the chest and dyspnoea.

1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VIII. 488 There may be high fever,..nausea, vomitings, smart diarrhœa and so on.

1907 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 25 Apr. 65/2 In patients suffering from gastric ulcer smart pain is produced at once.

1985 T. Valentine & C. Valentine Appl. Kinesiology (1987) ii. 16 A smart pain served as my morning alarm clock for nearly thirty years, arousing me promptly at six daily regardless of the firmness of my mattress.

a. Esp. of a natural force or process: strong, vigorous, intense; bracing, keen. Cf. sharp adj. 4d, 4j.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > manner of action > vigour or energy > [adjective] > of action: involving or requiring vigour > vigorous or intense in operation

strongeOE

smartc1300

steevec1300

keen1340

piercinga1400

perceantc1400

forta1513

incisive1528

vigorous1548

forcible1555

emphatical1581

searching1590

nervous1616

strenuous1632

arrowy1650

intent1650

urging1658

sinewous1663

emphatic1689

drastic1808

needling1839

shrewd1842

gimlet1894

c1300 St. Patrick's Purgatory (Laud) l. 245 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 207 (MED) A smart wind..on heom bleuȝ wel faste, Þat heom þouȝte heo weren i-barnd.

a1425 (a1400) Prick of Conscience (Galba & Harl.) (1863) l. 3257 Þai er dungen..With smert stormes als of wynd and rayn.

c1450 (?a1400) Wars Alexander (Ashm.) l. 1309 Quen it was smeten in small with þe smert waȝes.

c1540 (?a1400) Gest Historiale Destr. Troy (2002) f. 146 Ffor the smorther & the smoke of þe smert loghys..All the Citie might se the sercle aboute.

a1682 Sir T. Browne Let. to Friend (1690) 6 Sepulchral Fires and smart Flames.

1692 J. Ray Misc. Disc. v. 91 A smart and continuing Rain.

1711 J. Swift Jrnl. to Stella 31 Jan. (1948) I. 178 We are here in as smart a frost for the time as I have seen.

1726 T. Smith Jrnl. (1849) 265 This has been a very smart, close winter.

1774 E. Long Hist. Jamaica II. xl. 240 Into these basons they let a smart stream of water, to loosen the earth.

1800 Med. Jrnl. 5 31 They..had a smart fever for three days, and then an eruption.

1875 R. Hunt & F. W. Rudler Ure's Dict. Arts (ed. 7) III. 1055 The assistant must look to the oil, and bring it to a smart simmer.

1900 J. Slocum Sailing Alone around World (1901) xvii. 235 It was blowing a smart gale and was too rough for the sloop to be towed with safety.

1992 B. Unsworth Sacred Hunger xxxviii. 429 Sea breeze came in but soon overpowered by a smart tornado obliging us to furl all and come to anchor in 25 fathoms.

b. Of a substance (esp. alcoholic drink) or its taste: pungent, acrid; sharp, piquant; invigorating to the palate. Also in figurative contexts. Cf. sharp adj. 6a. Now rare.

ΘΚΠ

the world > food and drink > drink > intoxicating liquor > types or qualities of intoxicating liquor > [adjective] > brisk or sharp

smart1372

brisk1600

sprightly?1600

pert1705

1372 in E. Wilson Descriptive Index Lyrics John of Grimestone's Preaching Bk. (1973) 45 (MED) Iewes..Menkten eysyl with galle smerte, And bodin him drinken þo.

1567 G. Turberville tr. G. B. Spagnoli Eglogs iii. f. 20 Hee tels a wofull tale that tasteth smarte.

1664 H. Power Exper. Philos. i. 33 Both in the keenest and smartest, as well as in the weakest and most watrish Vineger.

1684 J. Haines Epil. to Lacy's Sir Hercules Buffoon (single sheet) These new Wits Relish, small, smart, Bottle Beer.

1702 C. Beaumont J. Beaumont's Psyche (new ed.) ix. lxxxi. 128 A flood, to which..smart Gall is dropping Myrrh.

1710 T. Fuller Pharmacopœia Extemporanea 3 The smarter and staler [ale is], the more it openeth and detergeth.

1762 O. Goldsmith Citizen of World I. 241 It will eat best with some smart bottled beer.

1818 J. Keats Let. 29 June (1995) 110 We have now begun upon whisky,..very smart stuff it is.

1912 Farmers' Cycl. (1916) I. 332 The vegetable drugs—fenugreek, fennel, anise, gentian, ginger and pepper—were employed in sufficient quantities to produce an agreeable odor and smart taste.

1984 C. G. Hunter Wildflowers of Arkansas 68 The leaves of smartweeds have a sharp or ‘smart’ taste. The knotty stem-joints are a trademark of the genus.

c. Of a battle, attack, etc.: fierce, violent; esp. vigorous and quick. Cf. sharp adj. 4c.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > manner of action > vigour or energy > [adjective] > of action: involving or requiring vigour > carried out or proceeding with vigour

stiffc1250

busyc1275

greatc1275

sternc1275

smart?a1400

stark1489

thronga1525

vigorous1524

stout1582

intensive1605

spiritful?1611

warm1627

intense1645

mettlesome1645

spirited1670

mettled1682

sturdy1697

energetic1700

vivid1702

robustful1800

toughish1840

lively1844

full out1920

?a1400 (a1338) R. Mannyng Chron. (Petyt) ii. 21 (MED) Þe Danes stode þam ageyn with bataile fulle smerte.

a1450 (?a1300) Richard Coer de Lyon (Caius) (1810) l. 5389 Kyng Richard..Gaff the batayle hard and smerte, That no Paynym myght withsterte.

1672 tr. G. Gualdo Priorato Hist. Managem. Cardinal Mazarine II. ii. ii. 200 On the 14. of August, there happen'd a smart skirmish, in which the two Counts..and Turenne's Lieutenant-Collonel was slain.

1791 G. Morris in J. Sparks Life G. Morris (1832) II. 137 A good smart action would be useful rather than pernicious.

1846 H. H. Wilson Hist. Brit. India 1805–35 II. ii. 51 A smart affair with the enemy took place.

1885 Manch. Examiner 21 Mar. 6/2 A smart passage at arms between his Grace and Lord Bramwell.

1921 W. Foster Early Trav. India 288 A Portuguese carrack was overtaken and destroyed, after a smart encounter in which the English commander was slain.

1985 P. R. Newman Atlas of Eng. Civil War 70 On 15 August the royalist cavalry won a smart action at Ribble Bridge, near Preston.

d. Of a sound: short and sharp; abrupt and loud.

ΚΠ

c1400 (?a1300) Kyng Alisaunder (Laud) (1952) l. 1183 (MED) To mouþe he sett his olyfaunt; He bloweþ smert and loude sounes.

1607 G. Markham Cavelarice v. 54 The noyse and smart sounde of the lash of his whippe.

1716 B. Church Entertaining Passages Philip's War i. 38 In the Evening they heard a smart firing at a distance from them.

1752 London Mag. Dec. 535/2 The electricity breaks off with a smart crack, and a spark of fire.

1829 Chapters Physical Sci. 463 It demonstrates its presence both by a sudden flash and a smart report.

1851 N. Hawthorne Twice-told Tales I. viii. 154 That smart, slapping sound, produced by an open hand upon tender flesh.

1913 T. Hardy Changed Man 200 The hoofs of his horse sending up a smart sound now that he had reached the hard road of the drive.

1991 N.Y. Mag. 25 Nov. 30/2 The smart crack of a bat and the roar of engines.

e. Of an incline (esp. a hill): (relatively) steep. Cf. sharp adj. 10d. Now rare.

ΘΚΠ

the world > the earth > land > landscape > high land > slope > [adjective] > steep > somewhat

smart1670

steepish1814

1670 S. Wilson Lassels's Voy. Italy (new ed.) i. 58 I went vp a smart hill called Mount Aurigo.

1794 N. Parry Jrnl. in Kentucky Hist. Soc. Reg. (1936) 34 385 I found the mouth wide enough to..walk in strait; and the bottom was dry; it being on the top of a smart hill.

1833 Jrnl. Steam Transport & Husb. Dec. 55/2 It has been making almost daily trips to Edgeware, upon which road there are two smart hills.

1855 Jrnl. Hort. Soc. 9 130 The great accumulation of heat, too, at the upper portion of the roof; how unnatural, how wasteful!.. Ten per cent of the fuel is wasted in this angle, especially in high houses with a smart incline.

1918 J. Clarke Japan at First Hand xvi. 237 It is a winding fairy-like walk up a smart incline to the foot of the falls.

a. Of words, etc.: sharp, severe; cutting, acrimonious.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > vigour or force > [adjective] > mordant

smartc1330

unkeen?a1425

mordant1474

piquant1521

pugnant1537

quick1542

nippingc1547

nippy1575

cutting1582

yarking1593

stinging1600

pointed1617

pungent1619

toothed1628

aculeate1640

mordacious1648

aculeated1655

piperaceous1674

peppery1826

pointy1883

lashing1900

c1330 (?c1300) Guy of Warwick (Auch.) l. 1365 (MED) With þat ich word wel smert, Gij him smot vn-to þe hert.

a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 3034 Abraham..thoght þis wordes war to smert.

1550 J. Heywood Hundred Epigrammes xxxiv. sig. Biiii^v To whiche smart mocke, and wyly begylyng, He..saied [etc.].

1639 T. Fuller Hist. Holy Warre ii. xxiv. 74 He would often give a smart jest, which would make the place both blush and bleed where it lighted.

1675 tr. W. Camden Hist. Princess Elizabeth (rev. ed.) iii. 269 A Book which was written..against the Marriage in a smart and stinging Style.

1735 J. Swift Gulliver in Wks. III. 128 He seldom failed of a smart Word or two upon my Littleness.

1751 Affecting Narr. H.M.S. Wager 128 This smart Remonstrance touch'd the Lieutenant to the very Heart.

1825 Gentleman's Mag. 95 i. 397 ‘To start’ is to apply a smart word to an idle or forgetful person.

1884 C. H. D. Stocker Between Acts I. iv. 89 He..had come in it to-day without eliciting a single sneer or smart word from anybody.

1918 W. H. Hodgson Captain Gault ii. 48 I gave him a smart word or two before all the saloon-full; and I fancy they agreed with me.

1999 R. Maxwell Queen's Bastard 59 The midwife knew she could afford a smart word or two, for in this room it was she and she alone who stood between life and death for the Queen and her child.

†b. Of a person: sharp in criticism or comment upon or with another. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > disapproval > criticism > [adjective] > sharply

sharp?c1225

quipping1542

sharp-fanged1598

wittya1616

spinousa1638

scalding1641

spinose1660

smart1665

acid1756

caustic1771

rapped-out1831

1665 J. Sergeant Let. from Author of Sure-footing 5 in Discov. Groundlesness & Insincerity Ld. Down's Dissuasive If you advance this Civil piece of Atheistry, you must pardon me if I be smart with you.

1669 J. Dryden Wild Gallant ii. ii. 15 You are very smart upon one another Gentlemen.

1692 J. Washington tr. J. Milton Def. People Eng. iii. 59 The Lawyer, whoever he be, that you are so smart upon, was not so much out of the way.

1699 R. Bentley Diss. Epist. Phalaris (new ed.) 390 He fansied, he was very smart upon me; but as it generally happens with him, he lashes himself.

1713 C. Johnson Successful Pyrate i. i. 6 Bor. Spare thy Complements, and thy Chine, thou worthy Son of Musk and Civet—Tul. Ha! Tart as a Barberry; ever smart upon your Friends, but 'tis the Token of your Esteem.

†7. Distinct, sharp, clearly outlined. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the world > space > shape > [adjective] > having a definite outline

smart1644

defineda1727

the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > visibility > [adjective] > clearly visible > sharp or distinct

graphical1626

smart1644

sharp1675

vivid1690

briska1727

unblurred1809

vive1825

clear1835

shadeless1835

film-free1880

eidetic1924

crisp1937

deblurred1968

1644 K. Digby Two Treat. i. xxxi. 271 [A] blacke carpet to limit both endes of it (which serueth to make the colours the smarter).

1753 W. Hogarth Anal. Beauty xiii. 182 These objects which..come forwardest to the view, must have large, strong, and smart oppositions.

a1806 J. Barry in R. N. Wornum Lect. on Painting (1848) 187 The cast and manner of their several foldings, some more smart and frequently interrupted, others more flowing.

1870 G. M. Hopkins Jrnls. & Papers (1959) 201 The day had been very bright and clear, distances smart.

II. Senses relating to qualities of speed, intelligence, neatness, and similar qualities.

a. Of an action, movement, etc.: quickly or deftly executed; fast, rapid; (of pace) briskly maintained.In quot. a1325: (of a legal right) quickly effective, immediate.Sometimes with connotations of skill or cleverness of execution: cf. sense 10a.

ΘΚΠ

the world > time > relative time > immediacy > [adjective]

ferlyc893

cofc1000

swiftc1000

smarta1325

suddenc1390

undelayed1439

wightlaykec1450

short1480

present1489

indelayed1523

on or upon a (or the) sudden1558

immediate1569

instant1598

momentaneous1657

abrupt1725

presto1767

summary1771

momentary1799

pistolgraph1859

fast1863

the world > movement > rate of motion > swiftness > [adjective] > specifically of movement or action

radeOE

swifta1050

smarta1325

quickc1325

round1525

main1567

rapid1605

slashing1824

the world > movement > rate of motion > swiftness > [adjective] > specifically of pace

smart1748

rattling1768

slapping1812

fast-paced1838

clipping1845

spanking1857

a1325 Statutes of Realm (Rawl. B.520) (2011) vii. 45 Þer nis no writ..wareþoru þe plaintifs habbez smarttere [altered from smattere] riȝt þane þoru þe writ of nouele disseisine.

a1425 ( H. Daniel Liber Uricrisiarum (Wellcome 225) 369 Ȝif þe spatle appere gros in begynnynge,..& son efter þat turn to thyk, god takyn for hys smart changynge.

?c1450 (a1388) tr. Richard of Wallingford Exafrenon (Digby) in J. D. North Wks. Richard of Wallingford (1976) I. 211 The Mone..is evermore of more vertue when she is of smert movynge.

1519 W. Horman Vulgaria xxxii. f. 283^v Geue a smarte lose with thyn arowe and thy stryng.

1664 H. Power Exper. Philos. ii. 143 You shall see the water spontaneously arise to a competent height in the Tube, with a quick and smart ascent.

1682 C. Ness Astrol. & Theol. Disc. 13 Jupiter hath a smarter Motion, finishing his Revolution in about 12. Years, whereas Saturn doth require about 30.

1748 D. Hume True Acct. Behaviour & Conduct A. Stewart 17 Before they reached Edinburgh, they had come to a pretty smart Gallop.

1788 Gentleman's Mag. Aug. 445/1 It proceeded slowly up William-street..; after which it set off with a smart pace for Powers-court.

1818 Sporting Mag. 3 29 Newton by a smart left-handed flip, drew the claret in profusion from his mouth.

1895 Daily News 17 May 3/7 Chatterton being out to a very smart catch at mid-on.

1935 D. L. Sayers Gaudy Night xii. 257 The Proctor's bull-dogs..had come through the archway at a smart trot.

1940 M. Dickens Mariana v. 147 When she wanted to execute a smart tacking movement she would shout excitedly, ‘Look out, I'm going to turn!’

2006 Western Daily Press (Nexis) 26 July 13 The local RSPB official who dared to turn up to watch came near to being lynched before beating a smart retreat.

b. Of a person or (occasionally) a thing: quick in action or response; lively, active; prompt. Frequently in predicative use. Cf. to look smart at Phrases 1. Chiefly regional in later use.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > manner of action > rapidity or speed of action or operation > [adjective] > prompt to act

radeOE

yevereOE

snellOE

ratheOE

spacka1200

quickc1300

eagerc1325

readyc1330

tallc1374

smartc1380

desirousc1386

rifec1390

promptc1425

speedy?1504

nimblea1547

present1548

go-ahead1825

c1380 Sir Ferumbras (1879) l. 5575 Þe Sarzyn, þat was fers & smert, howel oppon þe helm he gert.

a1400 (c1303) R. Mannyng Handlyng Synne (Harl.) l. 4816 Man þat wel spedyþ hym yn dede And messager smart at nede.

c1500 How Good Wife taught her Daughter (Ashm.) l. 194 (MED) When þi seruantes haue do þer werke, To pay þer hyre loke þou be smerte.

1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 324/2 Smarte, swyfte, soudayn.

1655 T. Fuller Church-hist. Brit. iv. 177 This year began the smart and active Councel of Basil.

1658 Sir T. Browne Hydriotaphia: Urne-buriall i. 3 Water hath proved the smartest grave; which in forty dayes swallowed almost mankinde.

1687 tr. Sallust Wks. 96 All the while Catiline, with the most active and smartest of his followers kept still in the head of his Men.

1795 J. O'Keeffe Life's Vagaries ii. i. 23 Ah my dear hubby, I wish you were as good a sportsman as your 'prentice Tony Dickins, ah he's the smart fellow.

1808 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 19 106 Leaving for him two smart purges of calomel and jalap.

1847 C. Brontë Jane Eyre I. iv. 45 Bessie Lee..was smart in all she did.

1899 F. T. Bullen Log of Sea-waif 342 We were mighty smart getting under way.

1907 F. Hume Silent House xxx. 273 As a rule, he is always smart in replying... I'm sure he will be over soon.

1987 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 15 Sept. 4 Probably the same beauty had caught the eye of a dozen others so you had to be smart off the mark.

c. Chiefly Horse Racing (later also in coursing and greyhound racing). Of a horse or dog: fast, quick.

ΚΠ

1760 G. Baretti Dict. Eng. & Ital. Lang. I Puledrino.., a little smart colt.

1823 New-Hampsh. Statesman 4 Aug. 1/2 The rogues..having a smart horse, which put to his utmost speed,..could not be easily passed.

1831 New Sporting Mag. Sept. 348/1 Nor, despite her winning the Drawing-room Stakes.., do I consider old Sadler's very smart mare Delight to stand much of a chance.

1862 Manch. Guardian 17 Mar. 4/5 Dirt Cheap..is a smart filly over short courses.

1892 H. Cox Coursing in H. Cox & G. Lascelles Coursing & Falconry (Badminton Libr. of Sports & Pastimes) 13 [He] had backed his nomination to win a good round sum, having an idea that a bitch called Wild Geranium (believed to be very smart) would fill it.

1900 W. S. Dixon In North Countree ii. 83 Captain Christie's speedy mare Miss Julia..used to be exceedingly smart over half-a-mile.

1987 Racing Monthly Apr. 60/2 If one of the horses turns out to be something really smart, you would..share in the vast profits.

2012 Advocate (Burnie, Austral.) (Nexis) 15 May 34 [They] will be chasing the spoils with their smart middle distance greyhound Wynburn Jet in Thursday night's..final.

d. Chiefly North American colloquial (originally U.S.). Of a person: healthy, well. Now rare.

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > [adjective] > of health: good > healthy

wholeeOE

isoundOE

i-sundfulc1000

ferec1175

soundc1175

fish-wholea1225

forthlyc1230

steadfasta1300

wella1300

safec1300

tidya1325

halec1330

quartc1330

well-faringc1330

well-tempered1340

well-disposeda1398

wealyc1400

furnished1473

mighty?a1475

quartful?c1475

good1527

wholesomea1533

crank1548

healthful1550

healthy1552

hearty1552

healthsome1563

well-affected?1563

disposed1575

as sound as a bell1576

firm1577

well-conditioned1580

sound1605

unvaletudinary1650

all right1652

valid1652

as sound as a (alsoany) roach1655

fair-like1663

hoddy1664

wanton1674

stout?1697

trig1704

well-hained1722

sprack1747

caller1754

sane1755

finely1763

bobbish1780

cleverly1784

right1787

smart1788

fine1791

eucratic1795

nobbling1825

as right as a trivet1835

first rate1841

in fine, good, high, etc., feather1844

gay1855

sprackish1882

game ball1905

abled1946

well-toned1952

a hundred per cent1960

oke1960

1788 J. May Jrnl. 31 Aug. (1873) (modernized text) 116 Didn't feel smart enough to go to meeting.

1832 J. J. Strang Diary 23 Aug. in M. M. Quaife Kingdom of St. James (1930) 205 This commenced the sickest day I ever suffered since my remembrance but now (evening) I am again smart for a sick person.

1839 G. C. Lewis Gloss. Words Herefordshire 95 Smart.., in good health.

1884 J. Gay Canada's Poet 94 Young men rise smart and healthy, rosy cheeks so Clear and bright, see those cheeks again to-morrow Cut down like grass a withered sight.

1956 ‘B. Holiday’ & W. Dufty Lady sings Blues i. 10 By the time she worked her way out of hock in the hospital and took me home to her folks, I was so big and smart I could sit up in a carriage.

9. Forward, impudent; cheeky, pert. Now frequently in to be (also get) smart (with another) (colloquial).In quot. c1400 probably: glib.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > pride > impudence > [adjective]

thristec897

bolda1000

keen1297

apert1330

smartc1400

malaperta1425

overbolda1425

affronted1485

saucy1511

impertinata1525

over-familiar1529

pert1535

cocket1537

cockapert1556

contumelious1561

impudent1563

brass-bold1582

pertlike1582

paughtya1586

audacious1586

copped1597

effronted1598

petulant1598

dortya1605

rufty-tufty1606

facy1607

snappish1608

bold-faceda1616

over-pert1621

impertinent1631

procacious1660

insolent1678

calleting1691

effrontuousa1734

imperent1771

free1775

sassy1799

pawky1809

iron-sideda1825

gilpie1835

cheeky1838

fresh1843

snouty1858

nebby1873

gay1889

nebsy1894

nervy1896

brass neck1925

facety1928

facey1929

brass-necked1935

chutzpadik1959

the mind > emotion > pride > impudence > be or become impudent [verb (intransitive)]

to bear oneself stout1338

to have the (also a) neck (to)c1395

perk1529

pert1637

to brazen it out1712

to be (also get) smart1736

to push (also show) a face1765

to cheek it1851

whipper-snap1908

c1400 (?a1300) Kyng Alisaunder (Laud) (1952) l. 4153 Darrie was wel sore anoyede..And seide: ‘Of tale þou art smart!’

c1449 R. Pecock Repressor (1860) 5 In this trowing and holding thei ben so kete and so smert and so wantoun.

?1567 M. Parker Whole Psalter cxlix. 422 To be a rod: to chastise smart, straunge peoples froward hart.

1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 144 The curst, sharp, smart,..implacable and wanton-rowling-eyed Women.

1736 S. Wesley Poems 392 Moll thought she safely might be smart, With Priviledge of a Sweet-heart.

1765 G. Keate Temple-student 13 Ask for my Letters..Or, if I have already had 'em, Lounge at the Bar, be smart with Madam.

1824 Examiner 756/1 Never being smart, ironical, or what we will venture to call imputative.

1877 Louisiana in 1876 (44th U.S. Congr. 2nd Sess. Senate Rep. No. 701) II. 1583 I don't want none of your damn smart tongue.

1933 E. O'Neill Ah, Wilderness! ii. 60 Tommy..Uncle Sid's soused again. Mrs. Miller..You be quiet! Did I ever! You're getting too smart!

1956 ‘B. Holiday’ & W. Dufty Lady sings Blues i. 12 This time Cousin Ida beat me for being smart with her.

1983 N.Y. Times 21 Dec. a26/2 My kids started making smart remarks about how old-fashioned tee-shirts look.

1998 T. McHale Casualty (BBC TV post-production script) (O.E.D. Archive) 13th Ser. Episode 1. 50 Don't get smart with me.

10.

a. Clever, intelligent, knowledgeable; capable, adept; quick at learning, responding intelligently to a situation, etc.; astute, shrewd; (of an action) characterized by cleverness or astuteness.Also as the second element in compounds, in the sense ‘clever in respect of’, ‘wise to’, as street-smart adj. at street n. and adj. Compounds 4.Now the most common sense in North American usage.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > ability > [adjective] > clever or capable

smart1571

the mind > mental capacity > understanding > wisdom, sagacity > worldly wisdom > [adjective]

world-wiseOE

worldly-wisec1400

smart1571

shrewd1589

hard1655

sharp1697

auld-farrant1702

up to snuff1810

canny1816

savvy1826

worldly1829

lairy1846

facultized1872

sophisticated1895

hep1899

hip1904

streetwise1949

ready1967

kewl1990

1571 R. Sempill in J. Cranstoun Satirical Poems Reformation (1891) I. 195 Smart in my schuitting & singular in my Science.

1628 R. Le Grys tr. J. Barclay Argenis ii. 81 For he, a smart young man, and of great iudgement,..held vp the Kings side.

1658 tr. J. Ussher Ann. World 525 Being..loath to engage in fight with Fimbria, who was both a smart fellow, and a Conqueror to boot.

1709 R. Steele Tatler No. 26. ⁋5 [He] is what we most justly call, a Smart Fellow.

1786 M. Cutler Let. 20 Apr. in W. P. Cutler & J. P. Cutler Life, Jrnls. & Corr. M. Cutler (1888) I. 189 Those of my subscribers who are smart, able men, I have told shall have an equal chance with other proprietors.

1844 Mrs. Houstoun Texas & Gulf of Mexico II. 215 The Opossum is held in great respect by the Yankees, as a particularly ‘smart’ animal.

1850 A. Jones Memorandum 4 June in Memoranda & Official Corr. Republic of Texas 89 He has succeeded for fourteen years in humbugging an intelligent people into the belief that it was a ‘smart’ move on his part.

1879 A. Trollope John Caldigate II. vii. 90 He had been singularly lucky as to the circumstances and time of the sale. But there had been nothing ‘smart’ about it.

1888 J. Bryce Amer. Commonw. II. lxv. 484 In America every smart man is expected to be able to do anything he turns his hand to.

1908 L. M. Montgomery Anne of Green Gables xvii. 192 Mr. Phillips says I'm the worst dunce he ever saw at it. And Gil—I mean some of the others are so smart at it.

1943 H. L. Mencken Diary 13 Mar. (1989) 242 Cairns is a smart fellow and writes very well, but he wastes too much time on philosophy.

1988 P. Wayburn Adventuring in Alaska (rev. ed.) i. 48 It is not smart to try stream crossings wearing a long rain poncho or cagoule.

1991 H. Kureishi London kills Me 58 You're smart, girlie. What you doing with these bad boys? You're above them.

2002 BusinessWeek 4 Nov. 122/3 For all but the largest producers, the smartest choice may be to go ‘fabless’, avoiding the manufacturing rat race.

b. Of a device or machine: appearing to have a degree of intelligence; able to react or respond to differing requirements, varying situations, or past events; programmed so as to be capable of some independent action; (in later use) spec. containing a microprocessor (opposed to dumb adj. 7c). Of a material, medicine, etc.: designed to act or respond to conditions in a more sophisticated way than is typical.See also Compounds 2b.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > [adjective] > displaying intelligence > of device

smart1948

society > occupation and work > equipment > machine > types of machine generally > [adjective] > automatic > semi-automatic

self-starting1850

semi-automatic1903

smart1972

1948 Sci. News Let. 21 Aug. 123/2 The earlier eniac was pretty smart but the univac is even smarter.

1972 Proc. IEEE 60 1282/1 The term ‘smart terminal’ is used here to identify an interactive terminal in which part of the processing is accomplished by a small computer or processor contained within the terminal itself.

1979 Sci. News 116 232/1 Targeting drugs to the site of their desired action is a continuing challenge to medicinal chemists... ‘Smart’ drugs may be in the offing for a variety of diseases.

1986 W. L. Schweber Integrated Circuits for Computers i. 9 The intelligent controller (often called ‘smart’ in the electronics field) uses a program rather than a hard-wire approach.

1990 N.Y. Times 25 Jan. c6/6 The ultimate manifestation of the ‘smart’ house..was the Smart Seat, a microprocessor-controlled bidet attachment for the toilet.

1996 Times 22 Apr. 11/8 Technical matters discussed include ‘smart mines’, which deactivate or self-destruct 30 days after they have been laid.

1998 New Jersey Monthly Jan. 56/2 We've added smart lamps with data ports to enable business travelers to link up to their computer modems.

2011 Tampa (Florida) Tribune (Nexis) 22 May 4 Peak-hour traffic can still overwhelm smart signals, according to the Florida Department of Transportation.

c. Designating a (real or hypothetical) substance, esp. a drug, that (supposedly) increases intelligence or enhances other aspects of cognitive performance; (of a foodstuff or drink) containing such a substance; (of a bar) providing such items.Recorded earliest (in figurative use) in smart pill n. 1.

ΚΠ

1954 San Mateo (Calif.) Times 24 July 12/5 Some one of these days Don Levinson is going to get hold of a handful of smart pills and forget about road racing.

1966 Sci. News 89 187/1 Many biologists believe this would explain the mysterious memory-enhancing qualities of RNA and the new ‘smart’ drug.

1991 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 30 Dec. 4/2 ‘Smart drinks’..are popping up at trendy nightclubs and private parties.

1992 Independent 6 Aug. 6/5 In California, ‘smart bars’ have opened where people can drop in and consume cocktails containing ‘cognition enhancers’.

2009 P. Holford Optimum Nutrition for Mind xxxviii. 212 My recommendation under any circumstance is to start with no more than one smart drug or hormone, at the lower dose..and build up gradually.

d. Of a building: incorporating technology that allows a high degree of central computer control of services such as heating, lighting, and communications, typically with the aim of ensuring the most efficient use of resources. Cf. intelligent building n. at intelligent n., adj., and adv. Compounds 2.

ΘΚΠ

society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > types of building generally > [adjective] > other specific

standing1624

walk-up1928

LU1969

unlisted1970

mature1975

smart1984

1984 Christian Sci. Monitor 28 Feb. 6/4 One Financial Place will be the smartest of his smart buildings, he says. It will offer an information network as well as a message service.

1993 Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gaz. 25 Apr. 3 e I have heard that one of the new smart home total automation systems can cut my utility bills by 25 percent.

2001 Smarthouse Feb. 10/2 The company's conversion of the existing old office building into 120 smart-apartments took the silver award in the ‘Best Apartment’ category.

2012 Daily Tel. (Austral.) (Nexis) 18 May 24 The Taylor family were chosen form more than 100 applicants to live rent-free in the smart home and test it out.

11.

a. Of a remark, saying, etc.: clever, pointed; witty and apposite.See also smart talk n. (a) at Compounds 2a.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > wit, wittiness > [adjective] > of speech or writing

smart1585

witty1598

sharp1700

zinging1972

1585 T. Bilson True Difference Christian Subiection iv. 697 If all the Preachers in England would haue laide their heades together..they could not haue done it in quicker and smarter speech.

1656 Earl of Monmouth tr. T. Boccalini Ragguagli di Parnasso i. lv. 110 We find some Histories..abounding in smart politick precepts.

1673 S'too him Bayes 19 I acknowledge this Expression to be nice and smart.

1739 tr. C. Rollin Anc. Hist. (ed. 2) VI. 105 Cicero, who ascribes this saying to Timæus, declares it a very smart one.

1752 S. Johnson Rambler No. 194. ⁋11 He mistakes the question, that he may return a smart answer.

1824 T. F. Dibdin Libr. Compan. 539 A short, but smart notice of him.

1879 L. Stephen Hours in Libr. 3rd Ser. ii. 65 Mandeville..passes off his smart sayings upon the public as serious.

1901 Munsey's Mag. Oct. 129/2 While it lacks the abundance of ‘smart’ speeches that lent such sparkle to Captain Marshall's other military comedy, ‘His Excellency the Governor’, it contains more of real human nature.

1937 Life 12 Apr. 6/1 (advt.) This gay gaballero is, by his own admission, pretty hot stuff with smart quips and witty sayings.

1964 Jet 7 May 17 A few had smart quips for the demonstrators.

1997 J. Daugharty Earl in Yellow Shirt (1998) 47 Always picking his teeth with a broomstraw, popping my bra, yanking my hair, trying to come up with some smart saying. He's dumb!

b. Of a person: clever in talk or argument; capable of making witty remarks, quick-witted; adept at repartee.See also smart talker n. at Compounds 2a.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > sharpness, shrewdness, insight > [adjective]

sharpc888

yepec1000

spacka1200

yare-witelc1275

fellc1300

yap13..

seeinga1382

far-castinga1387

sightya1400

perceivinga1425

snellc1425

politic?a1439

quickc1449

pregnant?a1475

pert1484

quick-wittedc1525

apt1535

intelligentc1540

queemc1540

ready-witted1576

political1577

of (a) great, deep, etc., reach1579

conceited1583

perspicuous1584

sharp-witteda1586

shrewd1589

inseeing1590

conceived1596

acute1598

pregnate1598

agile1599

nimble-headed1601

insighted1602

nimble1604

nimble-witted1604

penetrant1605

penetrating1606

spraga1616

acuminous1619

discoursing1625

smart1639

penetrativea1641

sagacious1650

nasute1653

acuminate1654

blunt-sharpa1661

long-headed1665

smoky1688

rapid1693

keen1704

gash1706

snack1710

cute1731

mobile1778

wide awake1785

acuminated1786

quick-minded1789

kicky1790

snap1790

downy1803

snacky1806

unbaffleable1827

varmint1829

needle-sharp1836

nimble-brained1836

incisivea1850

spry1849

fast1850

snappy1871

hard-boiled1884

on the spot1903

the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > wit, wittiness > [adjective]

quainta1250

conceitive1579

conceited1583

conceity1589

conceitful1594

wittya1616

sharply-conceived1630

smart1639

mercurial1647

spiritual1701

wittified1742

scintillant1764

witful1765

1639 P. Massinger Unnaturall Combat iv. ii. sig. I2^v A smart queane.

1695 J. Edwards Disc. conc. Old & New-Test. III. xii. 514 The younger Vossius is a smart Advocate for the Septuagint.

1727 A. Pope et al. Περι Βαθους: Art of Sinking 65 in J. Swift et al. Misc.: Last Vol. It is by Virtue of this Stile that..Tully is as short and smart as Seneca.

1753 J. Collier Ess. Art of Tormenting Rules 199 This, I have been told, is what they call being smart in company.

1779 F. Burney Evelina (ed. 2) II. xix. 167 You're so smart, there is no speaking to you.

1829 London Lit. Gaz. 26 Dec. 847/1 They are smart in their remarks, and very excellent mimics and imitators.

1895 19th Cent. Aug. 324 He is decidedly smarter as an all-round talker.

1942 Billboard 17 Jan. 24/3 The girl is a smart Gracie Allen-type with a good line of chatter and an engaging personality.

2004 Diva Mar. 60/3 The smart and sassy ensemble exchange quick-witted repartee which reveals..many lesbian clichés and touches of nostalgia for the 70s.

12. Alert, energetic; spec. (chiefly Military) having a brisk and orderly bearing, esp. combined with a neatness of appearance (cf. sense 13c). Also in extended use.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > manner of action > vigour or energy > [adjective] > brisk or active

sprindeOE

whata1000

braga1350

prestc1390

yarea1400

stirringc1400

startingc1440

actious1441

actuala1470

activea1522

queemc1540

skeetc1540

lively1567

alive-like1582

pragmatical1590

spruce1590

agilious1599

brisk1599

sprightly?c1599

brisky1600

alives-like1601

alacrious1602

smart1602

eyebright1603

whisking1611

deedy1615

vibrant1616

sprunt1631

perking1653

alert1654

exilient1654

alacrative1657

eveillé1676

budge1691

jaunty1705

spry1746

sprack1747

alive1748

high-geared1795

rash1805

spicy1828

live1830

deedful1834

yary1855

sprucy1858

alacritous1859

sprackish1882

brash1884

up-and-coming1889

up and doing1901

loose1907

bright-eyed and bushy-tailed1936

buzzy1978

the world > movement > rate of motion > swiftness > swift movement in specific manner > [adjective] > moving swiftly and briskly

lightOE

quiverOE

wight1390

yerna1400

sharpc1440

fisking?1523

skeetc1540

nimblea1547

flit1590

brisk1599

brisky1600

smart1602

whipping1602

running1662

nimble-movinga1676

snack1710

brushing1792

adance1828

slippy1847

nippy1849

smartish1921

hoppy1934

the mind > attention and judgement > beauty > pleasing appearance > [adjective] > neat or trim > and brisk

smart1602

1602 J. Marston Hist. Antonio & Mellida iii. sig. E4 I..Strook a faire wench, with a smart speaking eye.

1683 A. Wood Life 9 Sept. The smart lads of the city march'd downe the streets with cudgells in their hands.

1777 Selector 2 Jan. 310 Garrick was too smart and dapper in it [sc. the part of Romeo], and always looked as if nothing ailed him.

1785 W. Cowper Task iv. 648 He hates the field,..And sighs for the smart comrades he has left.

1827 O. W. Roberts Narr. Voy. Central Amer. 80 Sufficient [room] for a smart vessel to work in or out.

1884 Pall Mall Gaz. 29 Aug. 1/2 The Egyptian soldier is..smart, clean, and cheap.

1920 Infantry Jrnl. (U.S.) Apr. 914/2 If he is a smart soldier, he will take pride in the way he salutes.

1994 J. Biggins Tomorrow the World (2007) 263 The Americans were very smart about their work: even swabbed the decks down for us afterwards.

13.

a. Of an item of clothing, etc.: attractively neat and stylish; relatively formal.

ΘΚΠ

the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > [adjective] > fine, elegant, or smart

quaintc1330

nice1395

merryc1400

featc1430

elegant?c1500

mannerly1523

fine1526

neat1566

trim1675

smart1704

dressy1785

natty1794

good1809

dossy1889

dicty1932

whip-smart1937

zooty1943

sharp1944

preppy1963

1704 R. Steele Lying Lover iv. 40 What shall I do for Powder for this smart Bob.

1712 W. Darrell Gentleman Instructed: 3rd Pt. i. 13 Nothing would please his Worship, but Smart Shooes, Smart Hats, and Smart Cravats... The truth is he had been bred up with the Groom, and transplanted the Stable dialect into the Dressing-Room.

1743 H. Fielding Jonathan Wild i. x, in Misc. III. 59 A blue Plush coat,..a smart Sleeve, and a cape.

1823 W. Scott Quentin Durward I. ii. 20 The smart blue bonnet..was already recognized as the Scottish head-gear.

1859 W. Collins Queen of Hearts I. 69 The man..had a collection of smart little boots and shoes.

1900 Daily News 8 Sept. 6/3 Two-thirds of the smart dresses are now made with an Eton or bolero over a more or less ornamental front.

1960 A. Waugh Foxglove Saga xii. 223 Martin had donned the Pig's Full Dress Mess Kit..and in its smart red monkey-jacket, narrow blue overalls with a broad red stripe..he really did look most striking.

1989 Times 27 May 35/1 (advt.) Good food, fine wine & live entertainment... Smart dress only.

2006 Guardian 17 Apr. i. 26/3 They are well-dressed young persons with clean linen, smart neckties, gorgeous ‘belchers’ round their throats, and brightly polished boots.

b. Of a building, vehicle, etc.: neat and pleasing in appearance; clean, bright, well presented or maintained.

ΚΠ

1762 S. Foote Orators i. i. 21 His eyes are constantly caught by the appearance of a smart house, prefac'd with white rails and prologu'd by a red door.

1823 Count de Soligny Lett. Eng. II. lxviii. 281 Looking out on the smart shops, the nicely paved streets.

1851 N. Hawthorne Twice-told Tales I. xvi. 252 There, in a smart chaise, a dashingly dressed gentleman and lady.

1894 J. D. Astley Fifty Years of my Life I. 94 We put up at a very smart hotel.

1915 Munsey's Mag. Dec. 435/1 Your eyes caress this smart machine,..I know you love my limousine.

1970 Illustr. London News 18 July 13/4 The smart Georgian building.

2006 Daily Mail (Nexis) 18 Nov. 26 Reg drives a smart new van.

c. Of a person: neatly or (relatively) formally dressed; appearing neat and stylish; tidy, well turned-out.

ΘΚΠ

the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > wearing clothing > [adjective] > smartly or elegantly dressed

well-arrayeda1387

well-clada1400

well-apparelledc1450

well-dressed1484

fine1526

point-devicea1529

feat1560

tiffety-taffety1595

well-gowned1632

well-rigged1741

neat-dressed1757

smartc1778

well-turned-out1825

well-tailored1828

upholstered1892

whip-smart1937

sharp1944

pressed1963

the mind > attention and judgement > beauty > pleasing appearance > [adjective] > neat or trim

netc1330

pertc1330

cleanc1386

nicec1400

picked?c1425

dapperc1440

feata1471

gim1513

trig1513

well-trimmedc1513

trick1533

smirk1534

tricksy1552

neat1559

netty1573

deft1579

primpc1590

briska1593

smug1598

spruce1598

sprink1602

terse1602

compt1632

nitle1673

sprig1675

snod1691

tight1697

smugged1706

snug1714

pensy1718

fitty1746

jemmy1751

sprucy1774

smartc1778

natty1785

spry1806

perjink1808

soigné1821

nutty1823

toiletted1823

taut1829

spick and span1846

spicy1846

groomed1853

spiffy1853

well-groomed1865

bandboxy1870

perjinkity1880

spick-span1888

bandbox1916

tiddly1925

whip-smart1937

spit and polish1950

spit-and-polished1977

c1778 C. Burney in F. Burney Early Diary (1907) II. 287 Dr. Johnson was immensely smart, for him,—for he had not only a very decent tidy suit of cloathes on, but his hands, face, and linnen were clean.

1789 H. L. Piozzi Observ. Journey France II. 204 We observed..how the town was become neater, the ordinary people smarter.

1806 J. Beresford Miseries Human Life I. ii. 34 Walking out to dinner, clean and smart.

1888 Poor Nellie 127 Adela had noticed how smart he looked.

1933 A. M. Lindbergh Let. 29 Sept. in Locked Rooms & Open Doors (1974) 120 The grand old-style hotel. All employees well dressed, lipsticked women on each floor, smart maids.

1999 M. T. Myambo in Y. Vera Opening Spaces 16 I was looking very smart in a flowing lemon-yellow dress with matching shoes.

2005 Daily Tel. 26 Sept. 18/7 He never managed to be smart, his waistcoat..generally unbuttoned and showing his braces, his sleeves rolled up.

d. Of a fabric, design, etc.: attractive, neat, stylish; richly or daintily decorative.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > attention and judgement > attractiveness > [adjective]

gracious1340

glorious skinnyc1400

drawing1435

gracefulc1449

attrayant1477

well-favoured1539

alluring1567

graceda1586

attracting1589

attractive1592

winning1596

appealing1598

taking1603

allicient1613

enchantinga1616

motive1615

temptinga1616

allurant1631

catchinga1640

gaining1642

canny1643

charmful1656

charming1664

mignon1671

disarminga1718

prepossessing1737

seducing1749

seductive176.

eye-catching1770

sweet1779

catchy1784

attaching1785

engaging1816

cute1834

cunning1843

taky1854

cynosural1855

smart1860

fetching1880

seductious1883

fruity1900

barry1923

hot stuff1928

swoony1934

dishy1961

dolly1964

jiggy1996

aegyo2007

the mind > attention and judgement > fashionableness > [adjective] > smart

gallantc1420

galliard1513

fine1526

trickly1580

pink1598

genteel1601

sparkful1605

sparkish1657

jaunty1662

spankinga1666

shanty1685

trig1725

smartish1738

distinguished1748

nobby1788

dashing1801

vaudy1805

swell1810

distingué1813

dashy1822

nutty1823

chic1832

slicked1836

flash1838

rakish1840

spiffy1853

smart1860

sassy1861

classy1870

spiffing1872

toffish1873

tony1877

swish1879

hep1899

toffy1901

hip1904

toppy1905

in1906

floozy1911

swank1913

jazz1917

ritzy1919

smooth1920

snappy1925

snazzy1931

groovy1937

what ho1937

gussy1940

criss1954

high camp1954

sprauncy1957

James Bondish1966

James Bond1967

schmick1972

designer1978

atas1993

as fine as fivepence-

1860 Harper's Mag Feb. 343/1 First, after the clergyman and the bearers, come Mrs. Spooner and Hannah Maria, the former in a smart black silk, the latter in yellow barége.

1888 Poor Nellie 8 I will make a cover for them,..a smart one of blue velvet.

1937 Amer. Home Apr. 101/1 (advt.) In your bedroom, smart new cushions, bedspreads—even deep-pile rugs.

1952 Van Nuys (California) News 21 Feb. 1 b (advt.) Jumbo Size Pilsner Glass. Beautifully etched in smart floral patterns.

1996 M&S Mag. Winter 69/3 Christmas chocolates this year come in smart gold paper with a red ribbon, wrapped and hand-tied in Belgium.

2004 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 1 Feb. ix. 3/3 A dog collar in smart dark red leather comes in three sizes and costs $52 (bichon frisé not included).

14. Fashionable, elegant, sophisticated; belonging to or associated with fashionable or high society. See also smart set n. at Compounds 2a.

ΘΚΠ

society > society and the community > social class > the common people > specific classes of common people > fashionable society > [adjective]

townishc1450

of mode1676

fashionable1712

smart1719

high-lifed1733

social1741

high-lived1757

West Endish1855

Fifth Avenue1858

mundane1904

societified1912

Park Avenue1923

1719 Free-thinker No. 158. 2 A Cluster of smart Men, in tawdry Dresses, with little Rapiers.

1793 A. Seward Lett. (1811) III. 275 This beach..covered with smart people, and with equipages.

1811 J. Austen Sense & Sensibility I. xix. 239 I always preferred the church as I still do. But that was not smart enough for my family. They recommended the army. That was a great deal too smart for me.

1845 M. J. Higgins in New Monthly Mag. Aug. 574 They..got my wife invited to several very smart balls.

1881 W. H. Mallock Romance 19th Cent. II. 254 Many smart people were shy of Mrs. Crane.

1899 Echo 1 Nov. 1/4 Artlessly protestant against the vicious vanities of smart society.

1926 J. Galsworthy Silver Spoon ii. viii. 183 ‘Don't know why he keeps on an amateur like that.’ ‘Box office, dear boy; she brings the smart people.’

1953 A. Hosain Phoenix Fled 150 With his charm and his means he soon became a favourite of the smart social set.

1969 V. Bartlett Past of Pastimes x. 134 Modern ski-ing—the kind of ski-ing which in winter..links smart hotels to remote peaks by ski-lifts and téléfériques.

2008 Daily Tel. 25 Aug. 20/2 On returning to England, the scamsters would go to the smart shops in Manchester and buy items identical in design, size and colour to those they had brought back from China.

III. Substantial, considerable.

15. colloquial and regional (now chiefly North American). Considerable in number, amount, extent, etc.; substantial, large. See also right smart adj.smart chance: see chance n. 4b. [The semantic development of this sense is unclear, and may owe something to several of the earlier senses.]

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > quantity > greatness of quantity, amount, or degree > [adjective] > considerable in amount or degree

goodeOE

fairOE

goodlyc1275

largea1375

no littlea1413

substantial1413

unleast?1440

prettya1475

reasonablea1500

substantious1545

substantive1575

sensible1581

pretty and ——1596

goody1597

greatish1611

considerable1651

sonsy1721

respectable1736

smart1750

quite a little ——1763

gey1796

smartish1799

canny1805

serious1810

right smart1825

dunnamuch1831

snug1833

tidy1839

bonnyish1855

largish1872

a nice little ——1891

significant1898

healthy1901

beaucoup1917

the world > relative properties > number > plurality > great number, numerousness > [adjective] > abundant, numerous

so manyc888

thickc893

muchc1225

rifec1275

stourc1275

unridec1300

copiousc1384

plentya1400

rivedc1400

numerable?a1425

numerous?a1475

many a several1543

rank1545

numberous1566

huge1570

multuous1586

multeous1589

numberful1594

numberable1596

numbery1606

numbersomea1617

multitudinousa1631

sand-like1630

voluminous1650

several1712

smart1750

powerful1800

multitudinarious1810

multitudinary1838

1750 C. Smith Antient & Present State Cork I. ii. iv. 289 The Kingsale fishermen also come hither and build huts, where they cure their fish, and for this they pay a smart rent.

a1777 S. Foote Devil upon Two Sticks (1778) ii. 44 [Scotsman] Ah! for the mater of that, it is a praty smart little income.

1819 D. Thomas Trav. Western Country 230 A considerable number is expressed by a smart chance; and our hostess at Madison said, there was ‘a smart chance of yankees’ in that village.

1839 G. C. Lewis Gloss. Words Herefordshire 95 ‘A smart few’ means a considerable number.

1855 W. M. Thackeray Newcomes II. xlii. 374 Madame..left a smart legacy to the..children.

1882 I. Mayo Mrs. Raven's Temptation I. 276 Hope you will get a smart fee with it.

1901 E. G. Hayden Trav. round Village ii. 38 The neighbours..noticed that he ‘broke a smart deal’ that autumn.

1991 R. A. Couto Ain't gonna let Nobody turn me Round i. i. 32 Spent a smart amount of our personal cash money because we didn't know how to go at it.

Phrases

P1. colloquial (chiefly British). to look smart: to move or act quickly or energetically. Frequently in imperative: ‘be quick’, ‘hurry up’. Cf. to look lively at lively adj. and n. Phrases, to look sharp at sharp adv. Phrases.In earlier use frequently in nautical contexts.

ΚΠ

1823 Manch. Iris 13 Dec. 401/3 Look smart, and I'll turn the spit till somebody comes.

1862 F. Moore Rebellion Rec. IV. 62/1 His mates and crew were restricted to one bag of clothing each, and he was advised to ‘look smart’ about it.

1893 G. A. Henty In Greek Waters xv. 257 All hands get off sail! Look smart, my lads; there is a..squall coming.

1917 A. G. Empey Over Top 311 ‘Toots Sweet’. Tommy's French for ‘hurry up’, ‘look smart’.

1974 New Scientist 7 Mar. 629/1 Some..put out their hands to touch him.., but they have to look smart about it, or he is gone before they can pay tribute.

2010 Daily Record (Glasgow) (Nexis) 5 Aug. (Sport section) 70 Zaluska had to look smart to stop Cesar drilling home a quick-fire second goal.

P2.

a. colloquial (chiefly U.S.). smart as a whip: very sharp or lively; spec. extremely intelligent or clever. Cf. whip-smart adj.

ΚΠ

1821 Supporter & Scioto (Ohio) Gaz. 7 Nov. 1/2 His daughters are as lively and as smart as a whip.

1860 Republican Jrnl. (Columbus, Wisconsin) 9 Feb. 1/7 Mr. A—— was a prompt and successful business man, ‘smart as a whip’, as the Yankees say.

1909 Out West June 556 Miss June and I grew up together, went to school together; she's about five years the younger, but smart as a whip.

1958 J. L. Herlihy & W. Noble Blue Denim (1986) i. 18 But don't get it into your head that kid's not as smart as a whip... Some day he's going to be a big executive for the Detroit Edison company.

1988 Chicago Tribune 28 Oct. 23 Paul Pryde is the same man I have known all these years: smart as a whip, an astute economic and political analyst, with a keen eye for opportunity disguised as disadvantage.

2010 Good Housek. (Nexis) 1 Apr. 66 My little dog Karoo is smart as a whip. She knows where the craft-services [food] tables are.

b. smart as a steel trap: see steel trap n. (b) at steel n.¹ Compounds 8.

Compounds

C1.

smart-looking adj.

ΚΠ

1760 G. Baretti Dict. Eng. & Ital. Lang. I. Servitorino, a smart-looking little man-servant; a foot-boy.

1865 Once a Week 15 July 108/2 Grunter was talking to..the old lady—a clean, smart-looking widow, who kept a preparatory school next door.

1955 ‘A. Aldrich’ We walk Alone i. 13 The pair of smart-looking, urbane women executives at a table in a corner getting high on Rob Roys.

2002 Best of Brit. Nov. 37/1 A smart-looking police officer with shiny boots and white over-sleeves waits for the approaching van.

smart-suited adj.

ΚΠ

1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. x. [Wandering Rocks] 243 James's wax smartsuited freshcheeked models.

1994 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 23 June 18/1 The smart suited head of the Polish Scientific Publishers.

2002 Mirror 27 Mar. 17/4 Stay at any LA hotel and you'll see the divide before your eyes. The smart-suited ladies behind reception desks are white, the ladies who clean your rooms are not.

smart-tongued adj.

ΚΠ

1602 B. Jonson Poetaster iv. v. sig. H2^v A good smart-tongu'd Goddesse.

1868 Quiver 24 Oct. 34/2 That quick witted, smart tongued, bright eyed little person.

1902 Athenæum 20 Sept. 370/3 She is self-willed, perverse, smart-tongued and full of resource.

1998 Los Angeles Mag. Aug. 42 Zeta-Jones and Hopkins are together again, he as the master bandit and she as his daughter, a sword-wielding, smart-tongued stunner.

smart-witted adj.

ΚΠ

1838 H. W. Torrens tr. Bk. Thousand Nights & One Night I. 78 Now you be three, and you require a fourth, and here am I, a man, sensible, a prudent fellow, smart-witted, and one that can keep counsel.

1897 Daily News 28 Sept. 2/1 That friendly, but smart-witted Power.

1948 C. E. Robinson Hellas ix, 149 Among the characters appear the gay young spendthrift and his fast young mistress, the unscrupulous go-between, the smart-witted slave and the stingy tyrannical father.

2011 J. C. Naidoo Celebrating Cuentos iii. 50 Children who read these stories encounter indigenous cultures and peoples along with smart-witted Mexican children who provide for their families.

C2.

smart apple n. U.S. colloquial (a) a person who is or wishes to appear clever or knowledgeable, but is regarded as smug and annoying; = smart alec n.; (b) a shrewd or intelligent person; a smart cookie (cf. cookie n. 2a).

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > sharpness, shrewdness, insight > would-be clever person > [noun]

clever-boots1847

smarty1847

smart alec1864

clever-clogs1866

clever-sides1886

clever Dick1895

wise guy1896

wisenheimer1904

smarty-pants1935

quiz kid1940

smart apple1940

smarty-boots1950

smart-ass1958

slick1959

clever-sticks1964

smart-arse1965

wise-ass1971

1940 Big Spring (Texas) Daily Herald 19 Sept. 9/4 His confession surprised practically nobody in the literary world except, possibly, the smart apple who reviewed the book.

1946 T. Bell There comes Time ix. 57 Here's a smart apple like you working your ass off for a lousy forty bucks a week.

1980 L. Sanders Caper (1987) 168 I realized what a smart apple this Black Jack Donohue was... He was shrewd enough to know that I wouldn't endanger Dick.

2004 Houston Chron. (Nexis) 2 May (Sports section) 1 Jones showed all the doubters and smart apples that a champion doesn't need to be a majestic figure or born of blue blood.

smart growth n. U.S. Town Planning planned growth of new buildings in accordance with social and environmental considerations or priorities; spec. development which aims to enhance the quality of life of inhabitants by providing improved infrastructure, facilities, etc., esp. in a compact urban area, and seeks to be environmentally sustainable; frequently attributive.

ΚΠ

1990 PR Newswire (Nexis) 9 Nov. Citizens' groups collected more than 1,000 signatures on petitions calling for a public referendum on a ‘smart-growth’ initiative which would limit new housing to three percent per year.

1991 Frederick (Maryland) Post 8 Mar. a7/1 I went to this..neighbourhood, and took along some legislators, because it was a good example of ‘smart growth’.

2000 A. Cuomo State of Cities, 2000 74 One approach to smart growth is to achieve higher densities by clustering houses around a transportation hub.

2004 Herald-Times (Bloomington, Indiana) 9 June a8/2 A..smart growth project that promises to make Bloomingtonians proud and serve as an excellent model for future infill projects in the city.

smart mouth n. U.S. slang (chiefly depreciative) a person who makes witty comments at another's expense; an impudent or cheeky person.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > pride > impudence > [noun] > impudent person > in speech

vauntparlera1529

saucebox1588

cheeker1840

saucepot1890

smart mouth1966

jay-

the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > wit, wittiness > wit with words > [noun] > one who indulges in

quipper1589

quipster1790

persifleur1829

cross-talker1907

smart mouth1966

1966 M. Terry Keep tightly Closed in Tulane Drama Rev. 10 197 Since when did you get to be such a smart mouth?

1968 Sun (Baltimore) 13 Oct. (Mag.) 19/1 I was a smart mouth, a troublemaker in school.

1985 O. S. Card Ender's Game v. 45 What are you, a smartmouth?

2001 N.Y. Mag. 19 Mar. 67/1 Bill Nunn plays his henpecked partner, ‘Pip’, and Diane Farr is the workplace smart-mouth.

smart-mouth v. transitive to be cheeky or impudent to; to be witty at the expense of.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > pride > impudence > treat impudently [verb (transitive)] > speak impudently to

sauce1822

to give (a person) sauce1823

sass1836

cheek1840

chin1871

lip1898

back-sass1917

smart-mouth1970

the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > wit, wittiness > wit with words > say as a quip [verb (transitive)] > in attack

quirk1596

squib1631

smart-mouth1970

1970 M. Spillane Survival...Zero! i. 10 This time he didn't try smart-mouthing me.

1976 R. B. Parker Promised Land (1977) xii. 65 Don't smart-mouth me, man. You wising off at me?

2005 P. F. Hamilton Judas Unchained ix. 424 You want to smartmouth me again, or do you want to survive the next twenty four hours?

smart-mouthed adj. characterized by impudence or (esp. barbed) wit.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > pride > impudence > [adjective] > impudent in speech or of speech

bardish1641

brisk1665

flippant1677

sassy1799

slang1818

lippy1875

smart-mouthed1967

the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > wit, wittiness > wit with words > [adjective]

snip-snap1673

quippish1817

quippy1859

quipsome1881

smart-mouthed1967

zinging1972

1967 Life 4 Aug. 8/4 The dialogue is smart-mouthed and the action is unpredictably explosive.

1978 J. Irving World according to Garp xii. 229 Some smart-mouthed motorist..will..ask.., ‘What are you in training for?’

2008 S. Armitage Gig (2009) 199 I've come to think that aspirant poets could do a whole lot worse than listen to smart-mouthed entertainers and deadpan comics like Lehrer and Newhart.

smart sanction n. Politics a sanction against a nation or state that targets specific persons (esp. members of the ruling elite) or particular imported (esp. military) goods, in order to minimize the adverse effects on the general civilian population; frequently in plural.

ΚΠ

1995 Associated Press Worldstream (Nexis) 18 Jan. The United Nations ‘should not be seduced by “smart sanctions” which are partially and narrowly targeted’, said British Ambassador David Hannay. ‘They are notoriously hard to enforce and therefore unlikely to have the desired effect.’

2002 Village Voice (N.Y.) 22 Jan. 35/1 They proposed..‘smart sanctions’, which would allow the Iraqi citizenry access to a far greater range of goods while clamping down more firmly on ‘dual use’ items with potential military applications.

2009 D. P. Forsythe Encycl. Human Rights I. 84/1 A smart sanction might freeze financial assets of varied types and might restrict or deny aviation and travel.

smart set n. colloquial (sometimes depreciative, with connotations of decadence) the extremely fashionable portion of society; fashionable people considered as a group; also in extended use.

ΘΚΠ

society > society and the community > social class > the common people > specific classes of common people > fashionable society > [noun]

higheOE

high life?a1518

towna1616

world1618

grand monde1673

society1693

beau monde1712

fine world1740

monde1765

tonc1770

high society1782

fashion1807

all the world1808

society1840

smart set1851

swelldom1854

Fifth Avenue1858

fashionabledom1859

haut monde1864

the big cheesea1910

higlif1911

haute Bohème1925

café society1937

jet set1949

beautiful people1950

1851 C. Norton Stuart of Dunleath I. xiii. 215 He did not belong to the ‘smart set’ of London society; he had not cared to belong to it.

1885 E. W. Hamilton Diary 20 May (1972) II. 867 Dined at Brook House... This is a house at which one meets the ‘grand set’ as distinct from the ‘smart set’—two totally different sections of the best London Society.

1900 Smart Set Apr. 137 The Smart Set of London has for the last ten or fifteen years..been the chief influence of our English playwrights, plays and players.

1949 P. Hastings Cases in Court v. 265 Mrs Barney's family were well-known in Mayfair and both Mrs Barney and the dead man were notorious members of the so-called young ‘smart set’.

1974 P. Dickinson Poison Oracle ii. 66 Dinah [sc. an ape]..had indeed left the slums to join the evolutionary smart set, Man.

2004 Sunday Times Trav. Feb. 69/2 This is Green Spain—the Costa Verde—where Madrid's smart set comes to escape the furnace heat of the Castilian summer.

smart talk n. (a) clever, witty, or persuasive talk, esp. of an insincere nature; (b) impertinent or rude remarks or replies; backchat.

ΚΠ

1731 Z. Mudge Liberty 28 Where there is..any undue Motive, not all the smart Talk in the World for Liberty will go farther.

1826 London & Paris Observer 16 Apr. 248/1 I had some smart talk with a Mr. Hollins, constable..; in short, I made him as mad as a wasp.

1903 S. J. A. Fitz-Gerald Love-thirst of Elaine xii. 101 That idiotic love foolishness that..might sway Elaine if exercised by a man like Cates, with his light ways and smart talk.

1988 Washington Post (Nexis) 15 Apr. b1 Unflappable as a Borsch Belter fending off hecklers, he plays hard to get when the kids start with the smart talk and spitballs.

2001 S. L. Lanehart Sociocultural & Hist. Contexts of Afr. Amer. Eng. ii. 222 Smart talk..is reserved for all other communicants as a put-down, reflecting a combative style of language.

2012 Scotsman (Nexis) 10 May 6 A lavish costume drama full of the kind of theatrical smart talk..that makes audiences laugh.

smart-talk v. transitive (a) to engage (a person) in clever, witty, or persuasive conversation, esp. of an insincere nature; (also) to make (one's way) by means of such talk; cf. smooth-talk v.; (b) to talk to or answer (a person) in an impertinent or rude way; cf. smart-mouth vb.

ΚΠ

1930 Blytheville (Arkansas) Courier News 8 Nov. 8/7 On Broadway, they ‘smart talk’ them into thinking they are the most scintillatingly brilliant..creatures that the world ever produced.

1936 San Antonio (Texas) Express 12 Jan. (Comic section) Don't smart talk me!

1988 Mother Jones Apr. 26/1 [He] uses grim unemployment statistics to push the students who smart-talk him.

1994 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 27 Nov. 29/1 [He] smart-talked his way through life and love in New York City.

2002 T. Lott Rumours of Hurricane (2003) ii. 44 Don't you smart-talk me. We put a roof over your head.

smart talker n. a person who engages in clever, witty, or persuasive talk, esp. of an insincere kind.

ΚΠ

1823 Ld. Byron Don Juan: Canto XIII xcviii. 104 They must..never flinch When some smart talker puts them to the test, But seize the last word, which no doubt's the best.

1901 Outlook 22 June 453/2 He is a smart talker, full of plausible argument, and can make white appear black.

1961 Washington Post 20 June a13/1 The wise guy in many groups establishes himself as a glib and smart talker by just this sort of conversation.

2011 Sunday Independent (Ireland) (Nexis) 19 June The party's imperative is to acquire clever thinkers rather than smart talkers.

smart-talking adj. given to or characterized by clever, witty, or persuasive talk, esp. of an insincere nature.

ΚΠ

1822 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Oct. 452/1 A smart-talking, slim-bodied young Cockney, whose courage had..completely forsaken him.

1908 Graettinger (Iowa) Times 24 Dec. 5/3 A number..were hit by a smart talking advertising fakir..and now..can only regret that they did not spend their money with the local printer.

1978 Jet 30 Mar. 30/1 All the other Black actors on regular series portray pimps, prostitutes, butlers, unemployed people, cops or smart-talking kids.

2002 T. Gates Scenario 24 This film—bettered only perhaps by the later Night at the Opera—was one of the founders of American smart-talking comedy.

b. (In sense 10b; see also smartphone n., smart pill n. 2.)

smart antenna n. any of various antennae in which computer technology is used to improve performance; esp. a directional antenna in which the beam is automatically focused on the receiver.

ΚΠ

1977 Microwaves May 46/1 ‘Smart’ antennas will be controlled by microprocessors in spatial scanning applications.

2002 InfoWorld 11 Nov. 28/3 Dozens of antenna elements..form a smart antenna that focuses the RF signal in a point-to-point architecture instead of broadcasting the signal.

2012 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 18 Apr. b1 The smart antenna would direct energy straight at the phones, and..current spectrum would be put to more efficient use.

smart bomb n. a bomb that is guided to its target with a high degree of precision (cf. guided adj. b); frequently figurative.

ΘΚΠ

society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > explosive device > [adjective] > types of bomb

incendiary1871

heavy1917

dirty1956

smart bomb1970

enhanced radiation1976

1970 Aviation Week & Space Technol. 13 July 55/3 Loran applications..from a simple, low-cost expendable 100 kc. Loran repeater to a complete Loran receiver in a ‘smart’, or guided, bomb are under investigation by USAF.

1986 T. Clancy Red Storm Rising (1988) xvii. 207 Half were F-111F Aardvarks, the other half ‘GR.1’ Tornados, their wings heavy with fuel tanks and smart bombs.

1996 Time (Special Issue) Fall 29/1 In gene therapy, most of the current ‘smart bombs’..are viruses.

1999 Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey) 19 Nov. 11/1 Chronic pain..may be controlled by a ‘smart bomb’ drug that brings relief without the dulling side effects of narcotics.

2003 Time Out N.Y. 15 May 66/4 The style of fighting that paintballers reenact..is becoming increasingly irrelevant in the age of smart bombs and Predator drones.

smart box n. any of various compact, box-like electronic devices that need little or no human input.

ΚΠ

1985 Flying Aug. 101/2 The TI 9200 is a smart box, so there is no need to enter north-south designations or leading or trailing zeros if the waypoint is in the northern hemisphere west of the prime meridian.

1990 Sphere July 35/2 The modern carilloneur, however, can ring the changes simply by keying in a few commands to one of Clock-O-Matic's smart boxes.

1994 New Scientist 8 Jan. 7/1 ‘Smart boxes’, which route calls by the cheapest network depending on codes, will also need to be modified.

2006 New Yorker 19 June 56/1 Other high-tech security proposals, such as ‘smart boxes’—containers fitted with sensors that will track their location, temperature, and radiation and carbon monoxide levels—are all good in theory.

smart card n. originally U.S. a type of plastic card containing an embedded microchip or integrated circuit, and used for any of a variety of processes carried out electronically, such as financial transactions, authorizing access to a particular area, etc.

ΘΚΠ

society > trade and finance > management of money > solvency > [noun] > credit documents > credit card

credit card1888

bank card1947

card1950

American Express1958

Amex1958

charge card1962

banker's card1966

Barclaycard1966

cheque card1966

Master Charge1966

gold card1970

asset card1975

debit card1975

visa1976

affinity card1979

master card1979

smart card1980

phonecard1981

key card1985

Connect1987

Switch card1988

1980 N.Y. Times 14 Dec. iii. 4/3 They preferred to write checks, knowing these would not clear until the next pay check had arrived. ‘Smart card’ holders could react the same way.

1983 Electronics 10 Mar. 52 The Army started to explore the smart card in January 1982 as a complete records-keeping vehicle.

1994 A. Kent & J. G. Williams Encycl. Microcomputers XIII. 187 The main advantage of the smart card over magnetic cards is that it can record transactions in its own memory.

2005 Daily Tel. 6 June 4/2 Tag and beacon..requires all motorists to have a machine readable smart card which is read by overhead gantries.

smart charging n. a system for managing the charging of a battery (esp. that of an electric vehicle) that allows the process to be spread flexibly over a period of time, optimizing electricity usage, and extending the life of the battery; frequently as a modifier, esp. in smart charging technology.

ΚΠ

1991 PR Newswire (Nexis) 26 Oct. Cooperation..will be required to bring ‘smart charging’ to market. ‘Smart charging,’..is the GM [sc. General Motors] term for advanced charging technology, enabling electric utilities to balance the load that daytime charging could create.

1992 PR Newswire (Nexis) 30 Dec. ‘The trick of the Smart Charging System is that it takes the diagnostics—the pulse of the battery—several times every second and then adjusts the charge current,’ said..Norvik vice president of Research.

2017 D. Dallinger et al. in O. Veneri Technol. & Applic. for Smart Charging Electric & Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles vi. 237 A setup with long cables increases the sensitivity towards voltage deviations in the grid and therefore enables illustrating possible benefits of smart charging.

2017 Times 26 May 51/1 Royal Dutch Shell is..developing smart charging technology to prevent battery-powered cars causing blackouts.

smart chip n. a microchip; esp. (in later use) one embedded in a smart card.

ΚΠ

1977 Electronics 8 Dec. 96/1 (heading) Smart chip peripherals.

1999 Billboard 2 Oct. 89/2 American Express' new Blue card, which has a smart chip.

2012 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 10 June American credit cards..are not always accepted now that most of the world has shifted to cards that use a smart chip.

smart dust n. Telecommunications a (hypothetical) collection of many minute sensors or other devices capable of wireless communication, designed to perform a task, esp. monitoring or detection, while dispersed over a certain area.

ΚΠ

1998 V. S. Hsu et al. in Univ. Calif., Berkeley: Electronics Res. Lab. Memo. M98/2 (title) Wireless communications for smart dust.

2000 N.Y. Times 31 Dec. iv. 4/3 Clouds of ‘smart dust’—tiny computers and sensors each a cubic millimeter in size—will course through the skies monitoring the weather or the traffic below.

2010 Sci. Amer. (U.K. ed.) July 40/2 These machines might be used for roles that range from ‘smart dust’ that detects the enemy to cellular-level machines.

smart fabric n. a synthetic fabric designed to respond in a particular way to some external stimulus, such as heat or particular chemicals; cf. smart material n.

ΚΠ

1991 Toronto Star 17 Nov. e2/3 Skiers who crave functional sport gear will find that more and more skiwear is made up of temperature-sensitive ‘smart’ fabrics that transform the rays of the sun into body-wrapping warmth.

1998 L. Yamada Market Magic vii. 120 Smart fabrics may soon detect chemical warfare molecules and snare and lock them in.

2006 J. Byrnes Adv. in Sensing with Security Applic. 143 Examples already emerging include smart fabrics for monitoring personal health indicators such as breathing.

smart glasses n. a pair of glasses or spectacles incorporating computer technology, esp. to add information or interactive functionality to what the wearer sees.

ΚΠ

1993 Modesto (Calif.) Bee 13 Oct. g5/5 Other segments [of the program] feature the implantation of an artificial heart, and 'smart glasses' that help a visually impaired man to see his 7-year-old grandson for the first time.

2014 Daily Tel. 18 June 9/6 The idea of the smart glasses is to give people with poor vision an aid that boosts their awareness of what's around them.

2021 Financial Times (Nexis) 13 Mar. 10 These holograms are not Star Wars-style projections but realistic avatars that we can see through virtual reality headsets or smart glasses so that they appear to be in our room.

smart grid n. a grid, esp. an electricity or water grid (grid n. 8), that has the ability to detect and react to local changes in use or demand with the aid of digital electronics.

ΚΠ

1993 Washington Times 2 Apr. g6/6 Eventually, it [sc. Project Prometheus] hopes to link the entire continental road system into a smart grid.

2003 Wisconsin State Jrnl. (Nexis) 15 Aug. a10 A ‘smart grid’ for electricity transmission.

2009 Austin (Texas) Amer.-Statesman (Nexis) 25 Nov. b7 The proposal includes... 200 in-home smart grid water systems and 200 residential smart grid sprinkler systems.

2012 Press & Jrnl. (Aberdeen) (Nexis) 21 May 18 The transition to this 'smart grid' will cost billions of pounds, but will result in a more efficient and flexible grid.

smart gun n. a gun incorporating technology that renders it capable of seemingly intelligent action; spec. one that can be fired only by an authorized user.

ΚΠ

1986 Los Angeles Times 13 July (Calendar) 24/4 Director Cameron had worked hard to create the ‘Smart-gun’ that Weaver and others used so frequently.

1998 Guardian 23 Oct. i. 17/2 Several other companies are pursuing different smart gun technologies, including one that depends on recognising a gun owner's fingerprints.

2002 Philadelphia Inquirer 22 Dec. d2/1 A bill awaiting Gov. McGreevey's signature would make New Jersey the first state to require ‘smart gun’ technology.

2010 K. M. Brevard Story of Guns viii. 64 Inventor Michael Recce demonstrated an early model of his ‘smart gun’ with grip recognition technology.

smart highway n. a road for which a central computer uses information from traffic flow or individual vehicles to ensure the most efficient movement of traffic, or to enable some form of road pricing to be implemented; spec. (hypothetically) one that provides for driverless vehicles.

ΚΠ

1980 Business Week 10 Nov. 96 The coming impact of microelectronics... 1990–2000... ‘Smart’ highways for semi-automated driving enter early development.

1993 Fortune 8 Feb. 96/2 Perhaps the most attractive of the new ideas is smart highways.

2011 Austral. Financial Rev. (Nexis) 5 Sept. 43 Hold-ups in crucial government infrastructure projects to build smart highways are causing delays.

smart material n. any of various artificial materials designed to respond in a particular way when exposed to some external environmental stimulus, such as heat.

ΚΠ

1989 C. A. Rogers (title) Smart materials, structures, and mathematical issues.

1999 G. Stix & M. Lacob Who gives Gigabyte? viii. 199 The smart materials that have found their way into the widest range of devices are piezoelectric ceramics.

2000 Cutting Edge: Encycl. Adv. Technol. 259/1 Chromogenic materials are smart materials that vary in transparency according to the degree of illumination, temperature, or electric voltage to which they are exposed.

2012 Toronto Star (Nexis) 1 Mar. v. 6 Khan discovered he could embed several memories in the same smart material, enabling it to remember a series of shapes when exposed to different temperatures.

smart meter n. any of various meters capable of some independent action or which incorporate a microprocessor; esp. an electricity or (less commonly) gas meter capable of transmitting readings to a utility company at regular intervals.

ΚΠ

1974 L. Jacobs How to take Great Pictures with your SLR v. 80/1 This type of smart meter is called center-weighted because it assigns more ‘weight’ to center brightnesses when figuring exposure settings.

1993 CIO Aug. 94/2 The utility will be able to install smart meters with microchips that will inform customers how much electricity each appliance uses.

2011 Times (Nexis) 30 June 43 Smart meters give realtime digital information on how much electricity and gas is being used.

smart mob n. a large group of people organized by means of mobile phones or other wireless devices who assemble together or act collectively, typically for political purposes; cf. flash mob n.²A term coined by U.S. critic Howard Rheingold (b. 1947).Although a distinction is usually made between smart mob and flash mob, the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably.

ΚΠ

2002 H. Rheingold Smart Mobs p. xii Smart mobs consist of people who are able to act in concert even if they don't know each other.

2003 Time 10 Mar. 53/1 (heading) Day of the Smart Mobs... They toppled a President..and now have their sights on stopping a war.

2011 E. Morozov Net Delusion ix. 254 Jefferson..was not persuaded by the absolute goodness of the ‘smart mobs,’ a fancy term to describe social groups that have been organized spontaneously, usually with the help of technology.

smart quotes n. Computing quotation marks in text which are automatically interpreted and displayed as opening or closing marks rather than as identical straight quotation marks, despite being keyed in the same way; (also) a software feature enabling this; also in singular, esp. with reference to an apostrophe automatically displayed in a form resembling a closing quotation mark.

ΚΠ

1987 MacUser June 128/1 MiniWriter even has a feature called ‘Smart Quotes’ that inserts a proper left or right typographer's quote into your text when you key in a ‘neuter’ quote.

2002 P. Baines & A. Haslam Type & Typogr. vi. 163/2 Apostrophe... The correct character (sometimes known as a ‘smart quote’) should always be used, not a prime.

2010 TECHWEB (Nexis) 18 Aug. The company added the ability to convert default smart quotes into straight quotes using a key command.

smart road n. = smart highway n.

ΚΠ

1987 Business Wire (Nexis) 2 June Progress will be slow, but what can help is ‘smart cars and smart roads’. Rothery explained that auto companies now have the technology to convert cars into extremely intelligent vehicles with the use of computers and Geo-satellite systems.

1990 Sci. Amer. (U.K. ed.) May 65/1 Much of the added computing power will probably get plowed into new technology for smart cars and smart roads.

2012 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 6 Apr. 1 In the cities they will run on smart roads also embedded with sensors which keep them a safe distance apart at a safe speed.

smart tag n. a tag with an embedded radio-frequency identification device, which is attached to or inserted in something for the purpose of tracking it remotely or for storing data about it; cf. RFID n.

ΚΠ

1991 Age (Melbourne) 31 Jan. 19/8 ‘Smart’ tags that identify cargo containers and their contents both in storage and in transit.

2002 CIO 15 Oct. 92/3 Grocery retailers are eyeing radio frequency identification, or RFID, a ‘smart tag’ technology that could replace 30-year-old bar codes.

2011 Times of India (Nexis) 6 June The Maharashtra Livestock Development Board..plans to take up the work of implanting microchips (smart tags) on the ear or suitable body parts of the cattle.

smartwatch n. (originally) any of various watches equipped with a microchip that extends its functionality beyond timekeeping; (now usually) a mobile telecommunications device designed to be worn on the wrist, typically with a touch screen display and the ability to connect to a smartphone.

ΚΠ

1996 Age (Melbourne) (Nexis) 2 July (Computers section) 6 Most people have heard of smart cards, but smart watches? Using a new smart watch developed by Swatch and SkiData, visitors to 18 ski resorts in Europe and the United States can book tourist services.

2003 Associated Press Newswire (Nexis) 8 Jan. Touting an array of ‘smart’ watches and portable video players, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is offering further evidence that the world's largest software company sees slick consumer gadgets as computing's future.

2013 Chron.-Telegram (Elyria, Ohio) 8 Mar. c9/4 One of the smartwatch's biggest selling points is that it can alert you to calls, texts and emails you otherwise might have missed.

2014 Daily Tel. 7 July (Business section) 3/1 Heavy users of smartwatches can develop a ‘phantom watch’ mentality, frequently checking their bare wrist even when they are not wearing the device.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2013; most recently modified version published online December 2022).

smartv.¹

Brit.

/smɑːt/, U.S.

/smɑrt/

Forms: Old English smeortan, early Middle English smeorte (chiefly south-west midlands), early Middle English smurte (south-western), Middle English smert, Middle English smerte, Middle English smertt, Middle English smirte, Middle English–1600s smarte, Middle English– smart, late Middle English smerth (3rd singular present indicative); Scottish pre-1700 smairt, pre-1700 1700s– smart, pre-1700 1800s smert; Newfoundland 1900s– smert, 1900s– smirt. Also past tense early Middle English smeart (south-east midlands), early Middle English smurte (south-western), Middle English smart, Middle English smerte, Middle English smorte (south-west midlands, plural), Middle English smorten (plural), Middle English smourte (south-west midlands, plural), Middle English (1500s Scottish) smert.

Origin: A word inherited from Germanic.

Etymology: Cognate with West Frisian smerte (weak), Middle Dutch smerten , smarten (strong and weak; Dutch smarten (weak)), Middle Low German smerten , smarten (weak), Old High German smerzan (only attested in present tense; Middle High German smerzen (strong and (rarely) weak), German schmerzen (weak)) < a West Germanic base shown also by smart n.¹ and smart adj. Compare ( < Middle Low German smerten or its later reflex) Swedish smärta , Danish smerte . Further etymology uncertain. Perhaps < any of three different Indo-European bases: (i) that of classical Latin mordēre to bite (see mordant adj.); (ii) that of ancient Greek σμερδνός , σμερδαλέος terrible (further etymology unknown); or (iii) that of Lithuanian smelkti (impersonal) to hurt (hence perhaps ultimately < the same base as smeek v.).Form history. In Old English not attested directly, but implied by derivatives showing the present stem of the verb (see quots. OE¹, OE² at sense 1a). The word was evidently a strong verb of Class III, for strong forms comparable to those in Middle Dutch and Middle High German survive in Middle English; compare e.g. 3rd singular past tense forms smart , smeart with Middle Dutch smart , Middle High German smarz . The Old English verb would also have had a regular past tense plural form *smurton and past participle *smorten . These stem forms are probably continued by some of the Middle English past tense forms (smurt- was liable to be spelt smort- to avoid minim confusion). Compare the past tense forms of other verbs historically of Class III, e.g. carve v. However, Middle English smurt- also occurs in the present tense, beside expected smert- ( < Old English smeort- , which shows the reflex of West Germanic e , with breaking), and because the word has a stem-final dental, it can be difficult to distinguish strong past tense forms from weak past tense forms with syncopation of the ending (compare forms of hurt v.). The past tense form smert (which already occurs in early Middle English without final e ) is perhaps originally analogical to the past tense of Class VII strong verbs such as fall v. The Middle English present stem form smirt- (and perhaps also smurt- ) appears to show the reflex of i-mutation of the present stem. This may perhaps go back to Old English forms of the 2nd and 3rd singular present indicative (early West Saxon *smiertst , *smiert ), but compare also forms of smart n.¹ The present stem form smart- shows regular later Middle English lowering of e to a before r . Further Old English evidence. It has been suggested that the following Old English gloss of uncertain sense may show a scribal error for (inflected infinitive) *smeortenne :OE Aldhelm Glosses (Brussels 1650) in L. Goossens Old Eng. Glosses of MS Brussels, Royal Libr. 1650 (1974) 241 Arsuros : crematuros, to smorcenne [OE Digby 146 to smorcenne].However, an alternative (and perhaps more likely) suggestion is that the form is a scribal error for *smorgenne or *smorienne (see smore v.). It is also possible that the gloss shows an otherwise unattested verb.

a. intransitive. Of an external agency (as a blow, smoke, etc.) or a wound, etc.: to be a source of sharp pain; to be acutely painful, to sting, to hurt.

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > ill health > pain > types of pain > suffer or cause type of pain [verb (intransitive)] > smart or sting

smartOE

bite1377

stound1513

urticate1843

the world > health and disease > ill health > pain > types of pain > affect with type of pain [verb (impersonal)] > smart

smartOE

OE [implied in: tr. Orosius Hist. (Tiber.) (1980) i. vii. 25 Gnættas comon..mid fyrsmeortendum bitum [L. ignitas sciniphes] & ægþær ge þa men ge ða nytenu unaablinnendlice piniende wæron. (at smarting adj. 1)].

OE [implied in: Antwerp-London Gloss. (2011) 52 Prurigo, smertung. (at smarting n.¹)].

a1225 (?OE) MS Lamb. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1868) 1st Ser. 83 (MED) Win makeð wunde smerte.

?c1225 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 176 Hwile þet ȝihchunge lest hit þuncheð god to grinden [read gnudden or gnuden]. ach þer efter me feleð hit bitterliche smeorten.

c1300 Havelok (Laud) (1868) l. 2647 Þe dint bigan ful sore to smerte.

c1405 (c1375) G. Chaucer Monk's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 627 Thogh hise deedly woundes so sore smerte His mantel ouer his hipes caste he.

c1450 (c1400) Sowdon of Babylon (1881) l. 1544 Here woundis sore did smerte.

1594 T. Nashe Vnfortunate Traveller sig. N3 They basted him with a mixture..which smarted to the very soule of him.

1683 I. Walton Chalkhill's Thealma & Clearchus i. 54 Night drew on And his Wounds smarted: no Chirurgeon Was near at hand to bind them up.

1772 T. Bridges Burlesque Transl. Homer (rev. ed.) xi. 491 Ajax gave him two such spankers, They smarted worse than nodes and shankers.

1804 S. Rowson Misc. Poems 106 It smarts, dear, don't it? how can you endure it? Here's some Pomade divine, to heal and cure it.

1899 S. Levett-Yeats Heart of Denise 212 There was a broad pink circle, as large as a florin, around the mark of the trident, and it smarted and burned as the sting of a wasp.

1922 H. Quick Vandemark's Folly ii. 12 I began bawling as soon as the captain commenced putting arnica on my back—partly because it smarted so, and partly because he was so very gentle about it.

1975 W. C. Davis Battle of New Market (1983) vi. 64 His painful but slight wound smarting as he rode.

2011 C. Paolini Inheritance 92 Wyrden landed four touches in quick succession... The blows smarted.

b. intransitive. Of words, an action, etc.: to cause mental pain or anguish; to be hurtful.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > suffering > cause of mental pain or suffering > be painful or distressing to a person [verb (intransitive)]

to claw, rub, hit on the gallc1386

smarta1400

rankle1735

to play hell (with)1750

gnaw1859

a1400 Psalter (Vesp.) lxv. 6 in C. Horstmann Yorkshire Writers (1896) II. 195 His eghen on genge bihald þai: Þat smert [v.r. smarten; L exasperant], noght vphouen al In þam-seluen be þai sal.

a1425 (a1400) Prick of Conscience (Galba & Harl.) (1863) l. 1317 (MED) Yhit es happe of welthe to drede mare Þan chaunce of angre, þat smertes sare.

a1500 in F. J. Furnivall Hymns to Virgin & Christ (1867) 126 Sche answerd me schortly with wordys þat smartyd.

1548 Hall's Vnion: Edward IV f. ccxxviii^v Besyde this angre, ther came the next daye another corsey, that smarted a littell sorer.

1847 C. Dickens Dombey & Son (1848) xlv. 446 He saw that this..rankled and smarted in her haughty breast, like a poisoned arrow.

1900 Country Life Illustr. 17 Mar. 330/1 These idle words smarted worse than my wound.

1982 Field & Stream Mar. 194/1 ‘We all suffer from t'tyranny of our concepts.’ Oh, that smarts! Here he thinks he must give me some high-flying rhetoric.

2005 M. Lewycka Short Hist. Tractors in Ukrainian vi. 70 ‘Neither you nor I are going to look after him in his old age, are we?’ (Best to get it out into the open, even though the bluntness of it smarts.)

†c. intransitive. To be heavy or hard upon a person. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > adversity > be in adversity [verb (intransitive)] > be oppressed > oppress or put stress on

instand1382

peisea1450

to sit on (upon or in) one's skirts1546

smart1601

pinch1685

1601 W. Cornwallis Ess. II. xxxvi. sig. Y8 This smarted doubly vpon the taxed people.

2. transitive. To cause (physical or mental) pain to; to hurt, sting, be painful to.In early use often in impersonal construction with personal object.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > suffering > cause of mental pain or suffering > cause mental pain or suffering to [verb (transitive)]

heavyc897

pineeOE

aileOE

sorryeOE

traya1000

sorrowOE

to work (also do) (a person) woeOE

angerc1175

smarta1200

to work, bake, brew balec1200

derve?c1225

grieve?c1225

sitc1225

sweam?c1225

gnawc1230

sughc1230

troublec1230

aggrievea1325

to think sweama1325

unframea1325

anguish1340

teen1340

sowa1352

distrainc1374

to-troublea1382

strain1382

unglad1390

afflicta1393

paina1393

distressa1400

hita1400

sorea1400

assayc1400

remordc1400

temptc1400

to sit (or set) one sorec1420

overthrow?a1425

visit1424

labour1437

passionc1470

arraya1500

constraina1500

misgrievea1500

attempt1525

exagitate1532

to wring to the worse1542

toil1549

lament1580

adolorate1598

rankle1659

try1702

to pass over ——1790

upset1805

to touch (also get, catch, etc.) (a person) on the raw1823

to put (a person) through it1855

bludgeon1888

to get to ——1904

to put through the hoop(s)1919

the world > health and disease > ill health > pain > types of pain > affect with type of pain [verb (transitive)] > affect with smart or sting

smarta1200

sting?1615

mordicate1651

punge1657

wasp1846

nettle1858

a1200 MS Trin. Cambr. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1873) 2nd Ser. 21 (MED) Þo ðe time cam swo þat hire ne oc ne ne smeart.

c1230 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Corpus Cambr.) (1962) 168 Nis þing i þe worlde þet smeorteð him sarre. þen deð swuch beatunge.

c1300 St. Patrick's Purgatory (Laud) l. 217 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 206 He criede a-non to ihesu crist þo him smert so sore.

c1390 (a1376) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Vernon) (1867) A. iii. l. 161 For [þe] pore may haue no pouwer to playne, þauȝ hem smerte.

?c1400 (c1380) G. Chaucer tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (BL Add. 10340) (1868) ii. pr. iv. l. 1011 Þis is a þing þat gretly smertiþ me whan it remembreþ me.

a1450 Generides (Pierpont Morgan) (1865) l. 6075 Mi woundes smert me so sore, With you may I fight nomore.

a1475 (a1400) in Neuphilol. Mitteilungen (1973) 74 244 (MED) Mercy..I cry yin ore; Let me scape, me smertyt sore.

1558 T. Phaer tr. Virgil Seuen First Bks. Eneidos ii. 30 Than pardon we for pity gaue, this wayling smartes us so.

c1590 J. Stewart Poems (1913) 204 That schrink of sorrow nether suerwe nor smart The Interpryse of thy magnanime hart.

1619 T. Adams Faiths Encovragement in Happines of Church 416 A Goad, that pricks the skin, and smarts the flesh; Affliction.

1787 Minor iii. viii. 188 My wound..still continued to smart me.

1844 H. Stephens Bk. of Farm II. 505 It is better that the effluvium be so strong as to smart the eyes.

1884 J. Burroughs Locusts & Wild Honey (new ed.) 109 There was not enough moisture in the air to take the sting out of the smoke, and it smarted the nose.

1959 D. Hewett Bobbin Up xvi. 191 The sour taste of the beer smarted his throat.

1987 W. Hagelund Whalers no More i. 21 His voice smarted my pride with its displeasure at my unnautical report.

2005 J. Novakovich Infidelities 149 The cold moist air and granulated snow smarted his face and chilled his ears.

a. intransitive. To feel sharp pain or distress (in later use esp. with a stinging pain); to suffer acutely or severely. Also figurative.Frequently with prepositions, as at, from, under, with, etc.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > suffering > suffer mental pain [verb (intransitive)]

tholec897

throwOE

smarta1200

pinea1225

to well in woea1350

painc1350

labourc1450

to fight sore at heart1490

tear1666

the world > health and disease > ill health > pain > types of pain > suffer or cause type of pain [verb (intransitive)] > smart or sting > suffer smarting or stinging

smarta1200

sting1847

swithe1876

swither1876

a1200 (?OE) MS Trin. Cambr. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1873) 2nd Ser. 207 Ȝif he understant þat he habbe ofte agilt..þenne wile his heorte aken and smerten.

c1300 St. Michael (Laud) l. 783 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 322 (MED) Þe bodie..þat in strong Anguysche deth smeorte [c1300 Harl. smurte].

a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. vii. xv. 359 Smoke þat dymmeþ iȝen and makeþ hem smerte.

c1422 T. Hoccleve Dialogus (Durh.) l. 650 in Minor Poems (1970) i. 133 Smertith the fool for lak of good auys.

c1500 (?a1437) Kingis Quair (1939) viii (MED) Myn eyne gan to smert for studying.

1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 722/1 If thou ytche, care nat, but if thou smarte, beware.

1568 A. Scott Poems (1896) xxiv. 17 I speik expart, suppois I smart.

1609 Bp. J. Hall Passion-serm. 56 Thou strikest; Christ Iesus smarteth, and will reuenge.

1670 C. Cotton tr. G. Girard Hist. Life Duke of Espernon ii. viii. 371 Countreys that yet smarted with the last years War.

a1732 F. Atterbury Serm. Several Occas. (1734) I. 138 What Security have We, that, abusing and despising the same Mercies, we shall not smart under the same Judgments?

1782 F. Burney Cecilia II. iv. vi. 202 When I got home my feet were all blisters. You have no idea how they smarted.

1787 R. Burns Poems (new ed.) 234 I..justly smart beneath his sin-avenging rod.

1842 Bentley's Misc. May 500 With slubbered face, and shoulders smarting from the stripes, [he] presented himself before his mother.

1885 W. T. Hornaday Two Years in Jungle xxiii. 268 The salt perspiration ran into my eyes and caused them to smart.

1921 J. Galsworthy To Let v. 167 In a country smarting from officialism he felt that he had a strong case.

1954 R. Sutcliff Eagle of Ninth xiii. 138 The blue peat-smoke caught him by the throat and made his eyes smart.

1986 D. Hogan New Shirt ii. 66 His imagination smarted at the thought of crossroad dances which revealed kneecaps as smudged red as cheeks on a winter's day.

2003 Independent 30 Aug. (Mag.) 41/1 If your legs are still shaking and your seat is still smarting from the distant memory of your last bicycle ride, never fear.

b. intransitive. To bear the penalty or suffer severely for an offence, misdemeanour, etc.

ΘΚΠ

society > authority > punishment > [verb (intransitive)] > receive punishment > be punished severely

to buy the bargain dear1352

smart1534

sweata1625

to nap it1699

to get it1805

to catch or get Jesse1839

to get (also catch, take) it in the neck1881

to get beans1893

to get (also do) the book1928

1534 N. Udall Floures for Latine Spekynge gathered oute of Terence f. 175 Syrus shall aby on the bare skynne for my cause, or I shall cause Syrus bare rybbes to smarte for hit.

1579 W. Fulke Confut. Treat. N. Sander in D. Heskins Ouerthrowne 585 Balthasar abused the holy vessels, he smarted for it.

1634 T. Heywood Mayden-head well Lost i. i. sig. B1^v I shall ne're smart for't, what is't to me?

1687 A. Lovell tr. J. de Thévenot Trav. into Levant i. 78 Away, I say, else I'll make you smart for it.

1747 S. Richardson Clarissa I. xxxii. 219 Offences against warning ought to be smarted for.

1836 C. Dickens Pickwick Papers (1837) ii. 7 ‘You shall smart for this,’ gasped Mr. Pickwick.

1884 Sat. Rev. 5 July 5/2 He has done us a wrong, and should be made to smart for it.

1912 Boys' Life June 17/2 We go through this together, Teddy, and, if we win, we win, and, if we lose—why, then someone will have to smart for it!

1959 G. Davies Early Stuarts 1603–60 (ed. 2) xi. 311 If the bride's dress went beyond what the expected statute permitted, and her husband's purse was made to smart for it, ‘let him thank himself, not blame the dotage of his wife's mother.’

1997 P. Volsky White Tribunal i. 20 They had broken their own curfew, and would smart for it, should Ravnar find out.

c. intransitive. Of a person: to feel upset and annoyed, esp. as a result of the action of another. Now chiefly as present participle.

ΚΠ

1625 B. V. Run-awyaes Answer sig. A3 To make him smart a little, thus print wee our Answere to those bold affronts, by which he does challenge vs.

1767 L. Sterne Life Tristram Shandy IX. xxiv. 290 I so smarted at the very idea of it, that I swore I would set up for Wisdom and utter grave sentences the rest of my days.

1797 M. Robinson Walsingham III. lvii. 149 His vanquished antagonist..can laugh at the victor, at the same moment that he smarts from his malevolence.

1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. vii. 200 The just indignation of the public was inflamed by many who were smarting from his ridicule.

1910 H. H. Richardson Getting of Wisdom xiv. 143 Bob, still smarting from his father's banter, was inclined to be stand-offish.

1941 W. J. Cash Mind of South i. i. 3 Some wealthy bourgeois, smarting under the snubs of a haughty aristocracy and fancying himself in the role of a princeling in the wilderness.

1955 Manch. Guardian 24 Mar. 8/2 Some people in France have smarted at the blunt things that statesmen have said about their country.

2010 New Yorker 25 Oct. 81/2 Moynihan was still smarting from the response, four years earlier, to ‘The Negro Family: The Case for National Action’.

†4. transitive. To atone for (an offence) by suffering. Obsolete. rare.

ΘΚΠ

society > morality > virtue > righteousness or rectitude > reform, amendment, or correction > atonement > atone for [verb (transitive)] > by suffering

coupc1300

quita1400

smarta1425

expiate1665

a1425 (?a1400) G. Chaucer Romaunt Rose (Hunterian) (1891) l. 7057 He shal in prisoun dye But if he wole..smerten that that he hath do.

c1450 C. d'Orleans Poems (1941) 138 (MED) A Wel myn hert..ye wille aby If that ye pursew moche my rakil ey To don vs bothe to smert yowre towchis nyse.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2013; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

smartv.²

Brit.

/smɑːt/, U.S.

/smɑrt/

Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: smart adj.

Etymology: < smart adj. Compare smarten v.

colloquial.

1. With up.

a. transitive. To make smart or spruce; to improve in appearance or style; = smarten v. 2a.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > attention and judgement > beautification > beautify [verb (transitive)] > improve in appearance

cheer1560

tickle1567

smudge1589

perk1590

smug1598

pamper1611

smart1780

smarten1788

primp1801

to fig up1872

dude1899

posh1919

1780 H. Wickham Let. 21 June in E. A. Robertson Spanish Town Papers (1959) ii. 46 I am very much obliged to you for our unexpected supplys which has smarted Us up nicely it would give you great pleasure to see the little Boys drest.

1813 Polyanthos May 79 I smarted myself up a little, and was thought quite the thing at our parish club.

1819 R. Hunt Notes Visit Ohio in Autumnal Fruits & Flowers (1843) 42 Here we stayed all night, had the carriage washed, greased and smarted up.

1867 W. D. Howells Venetian Life (ed. 2) vii. 97 Rooms in a tumble-down old palace, where the walls, shamelessly smarted up with coarse paper, crumble at your touch.

1908 Archit. Rec. 13 331/2 The architectural injury too often wrought in ‘smarting up’ the churches of old villages.

1983 M. M. R. Khan Hidden Selves (1989) iv. 79 The..ranch-hands..smarted up the saddlery without really working at it.

b. intransitive. To make oneself smart or spruce; to improve one's appearance. Also occasionally: to become smart. Cf. smarten v. 2c. Now rare.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > attention and judgement > beautification > beautification of the person > beautify (the person) [verb (intransitive)]

trick?1532

mundify1568

prune1568

to finify it1586

prink1591

brisk1592

tiff1700

fetish1735

beautify1777

adonize1781

fix1783

smart1794

smarten1813

titivate1835

primp1887

doll1916

1794 M. Darwall Poems I. 88 I did not smart up in my holiday clothes To sit here tweedle tweedle.

1837 J. B. Derby Musings of Recluse 17 One night he smarted up, Put on his best blue coat and dickey.

1853 Knickerbocker Sept. 275 [They] remarked that Mr. Blimmer has ‘smarted up’; by which expression they make graceful allusion to a new black coat, and to very becoming plaids.

1884 Cleveland (Ohio) Herald 17 Feb. 10/3 The old city is smarting up wonderfully with fresh paint.

1906 Overland Monthly Apr. 359/1 In..one such [tavern] hangs forth the weather-beaten sign ‘2d to wash face and smart up’.

a. transitive. With out of. To use cunning or plausible deception to deprive (a person) of something. rare.

ΚΠ

1796 F. Burney Camilla III. vi. vi. 251 I can serve you as I did another gentleman once before, that I smarted out of a good ten pound out of his pocket.

1964 R. Phares Bible in Pocket (1971) ix. 125 Graves did not get the cattle, the Methodist explanation being that the opposition ‘smarted’ him out of them, claiming that the bond was defective.

b. transitive. U.S. To make (one's way) by cunning or shrewdness out of (also into, etc.) a situation or position.

ΚΠ

1922 Mansfield (Ohio) News 7 July 10/1 When she was cornered, she vamped or smarted her way out.

1933 Chicago Defender 30 Sept. 5/2 He..bluffed, lucked, and ‘smarted’ his way into power.

1994 T. Clancy Debt of Honor xxxi. 487 The takedown was pretty cute, but Secretary Fiedler here might have smarted his way out of that with our help.

2006 C. W. Henderson Jungle Rules i. 5 He smarted his way into airframe mechanics' school and slid downhill from there.

3. With up. Originally and chiefly U.S.

a. intransitive. To become more shrewd, wise, intelligent, or aware; to ‘wise up’. Cf. smarten v. 1b.

ΚΠ

1888 Atlantic Monthly Jan. 42/1 Gittin' silver spoons for her now she's 'most dead. He'd better have smarted up an' helped her more while she was well.

1969 Sunday Post Crescent (Appleton, Wisconsin) 25 May v. 10/2 Once she had been caught by a particular method, she would smart up and be wary of its use the next time.

2009 V. C. Andrews Delia's Gift 65 He's finally smarted up... Too late to help himself, I'm afraid.

b. transitive. To make more shrewd, intelligent, or aware; esp. to give (a person) information about a particular subject or situation, to inform. Cf. smarten v. 1a.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > make more intelligent [verb (transitive)]

opena1350

smart1926

1926 D. Hammett in Black Mask Feb. 64/2 Remember, I got no idea what this is all about... If you're counting on me talking, too, you'd better smart me up.

1936 L. Hughes & A. Bontemps When Jack Hollers (typescript) ii. 11 White skin ain't smarted him up a bit.

1949 Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin) 6 Oct. (Sports section) 21/4 Maybe a few of them have learned..just where they rate. If they haven't, somebody should smart them up but quick.

1998 W. N. Eskridge & S. V. Levinson Constit. Stupidities, Constit. Trag. xxii. 107 A number of potential stupidities have been smarted up by highly dynamic interpretation.

2004 New York Post (Nexis) 18 Jan. 74 Being broke and ignored smarted you up.

4. intransitive. With off. Originally and chiefly U.S. To talk to or answer someone in an impertinent or rude manner; to be witty at someone else's expense. Also transitive with direct speech as object.

ΚΠ

1902 Hutchinson (Kansas) Daily News 28 May 2/2 A tendency people have to smart off at the expense of those who are suffering.

1974 K. C. Constantine Blank Page 78 He smarted off at somebody a lot younger and a lot bigger.

1996 N.Y. Times 12 May e7/2 If they smarted off to him, he'd call the sheriff.

2004 M. J. Bryant Beaming Light ii. 28 ‘Spare me the details, please,’ Judy smarted off.

Derivatives

ˈsmarted-up adj. originally and chiefly U.S. that has been smarted up (in senses 1 and 3 of the verb); cf. smartened adj. at smarten v. Derivatives.

ΚΠ

1832 Juvenile Misc. Mar. 8 You seem to be mighty brisk, and smarted up.

1966 Appleton (Wisconsin) Post Crescent 21 Dec. b3/2 These smarted-up longjohns..retail in a variety of designs.

2012 Weekly Standard 21 May 38/2 Damsels doesn't feel like mere smarted-up escapism. None of Stillman's films feels that way.

This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, March 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

smartadv.

Brit.

/smɑːt/, U.S.

/smɑrt/

Forms: Middle English smarte, Middle English smert, Middle English smerte, Middle English smerþe, Middle English– smart.

Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: smart adj.

Etymology: < smart adj. Compare earlier smartly adv.

Chiefly colloquial in later use.

= smartly adv. (in various senses).

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > manner of action > vigour or energy > [adverb] > with vigour or intensity of operation or effect

swithlyc888

mightilyeOE

strongeOE

fastlyOE

stronglyOE

smartlyc1225

smartc1300

mightlya1393

freshlyc1425

almightily1609

feckfullya1614

shrewly1707

vivaciouslya1711

keenly1837

drivingly1842

drastically1850

incisively1871

the world > action or operation > manner of action > vigour or energy > [adverb] > briskly or actively

quiverlyOE

smartc1300

smartlyc1300

spacklya1350

merrilyc1390

sprackly1393

livelyc1425

activelya1500

busilya1513

allegrement1608

alacriously1609

nippily1650

briskly1665

alertly1725

up and doing1817

pert1859

brash1884

stirringly1889

bobbishly1936

the world > action or operation > manner of action > rapidity or speed of action or operation > [adverb] > quickly or promptly

ratheeOE

rathelyeOE

radlyOE

yareOE

timelyOE

belivec1175

belivesc1275

hastivelyc1300

prestc1300

smartc1300

smartlyc1300

prestly1340

spacklya1350

pertlya1375

redelya1375

redlya1375

yeplya1375

readilyc1390

yarelya1400–50

hasty?a1425

promptly1490

hastyfullyc1500

snackly1728

snack1739

snaply1768

in quick sticks (also in a quick stick)1835

pronto1892

quick smart1955

snappily1981

the world > movement > rate of motion > swiftness > swift movement in specific manner > [adverb] > swiftly and briskly

sharplya1000

smartc1300

smartlyc1300

spackc1330

wightlyc1330

spacklya1350

swipperly?a1400

wighta1400

nimblyc1450

quiverly1519

roundly1548

nimble1568

bragly1579

snap1583

yarelya1616

briskly1665

smartish1839

nippily1932

snappingly1976

the mind > attention and judgement > fashionableness > [adverb] > smartly

smartly1748

smartish1770

smart1771

flashly1812

dashingly1837

nattily1849

nobbily1859

stylishly1879

chicly1905

ritzily1925

snappily1936

c1300 Havelok (Laud) (1868) l. 215 Þe king..dede him sore swinge, And wit hondes smerte dinge.

c1400 (c1378) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. xi. l. 426 Þere smitte no þinge so smerte ne smelleth so soure.

c1450 (?a1400) Wars Alexander (Ashm.) l. 5515 Þan made he smythis to gaa smert & smethe him a chaiere.

a1500 ( J. Yonge tr. Secreta Secret. (Rawl.) (1898) 180 Thes newely come me shale moche more Smertre assayle.

1581 A. Hall tr. Homer 10 Bks. Iliades vi. 84 His launce he threw so smart, That through he thirlde his buckler quite.

1606 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. (new ed.) ii. iii. 128 Smarter then Racquets in a Court re-ierk Balls 'gainst the Walls of the black-boorded house.

1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Georgics i, in tr. Virgil Wks. 65 The Stars shine smarter .

1771 Hist. Sir William Harrington I. xvi. 149 Dressed as smart as my close mourning would permit me.

1794 Ld. Nelson Let. 19 July in Dispatches & Lett. (1844) I. 449 The Enemy have fired smart since daylight.

1811 J. Austen Sense & Sensibility I. xxi. 289 For my part, I think they are vastly agreeable, provided they dress smart and behave civil.

1852 H. B. Stowe Uncle Tom's Cabin I. ii. 28 He'd..put him to hoeing and digging, and ‘see if he'd step about so smart’.

1886 Pall Mall Gaz. 29 Nov. 3/1 It is better for tenants to be compelled to pay up smart than to allow them to heap up a great burden of arrears.

1926 D. Hammett in Black Mask Feb. 66/1 I talk smart, and bingo! First thing you know she's propositioning me.

1982 S. Paretsky Indemnity Only iv. 43 Don't talk smart with me.

1993 Kiplinger's Personal Finance Mag. June 46/2 Upwardly mobile women want to dress smart.

2007 New Yorker 6 Aug. 32/3 A journalist asks Bubba how difficult it is for him to forgo his passion for his driver and in order to play it smart.

Compounds

Forming adjectives with present participles, as smart-dressing, smart-sailing, smart-trotting, etc., and past participles, as smart-built, smart-dressed, etc.

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > ill health > pain > types of pain > [adverb] > smarting or stinging

sharplya1023

smart1624

sharp1635

stingingly1667

smartingly1703

bitingly1874

1624 J. Gee Foot out of Snare App. 114 A song of the same smart-yerking tune.

1632 J. Hayward in tr. G. F. Biondi Eromena Transl. to Rdr. sig. A4^v Fenced..with sharp-pointed brambles and smart-stinging briers.

1753 A. Murphy Gray's Inn Jrnl. 17 Mar. 128 A laced Coat, and smart-cocked Hat.

1822 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Jan. 21/2 A neat, airy, smart-sailing cutter.

1842 W. M. Thackeray Irish Sketch-bk. xiv. 159 A very good, neat-looking, smart-trotting, chestnut horse.

1851 H. Mayhew London Labour I. 379/2 Smart-dressing servant-maids, perhaps, are my best customers.

1884 D. Pae Eustace 97 We want a smart-built craft like yon.

1918 W. Wood Elizabethan Sea-dogs vi. 114 The pinnaces were kept till a suitable, smart-sailing Spanish craft was found, boarded, and captured to replace them.

1984 Guardian 2 July 8/1 You see really smart dressed people, not a hair out of place.

2010 D. Lanois Soul Mining i. 8 My dad was a greaseball, as were his friends. They were the smart-dressing kind of greaseballs—no jeans.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

n.¹a1225

n.²1709

adj.OE

v.¹OE

v.²1780

adv.c1300

单词	smart
释义	smartn.¹ Brit. /smɑːt/, U.S. /smɑrt/ Forms: early Middle English smeorte (south-western), early Middle English smierte (south-east midlands), early Middle English smirte (south-west midlands), Middle English smertte, Middle English–1500s smert, Middle English–1500s smerte, late Middle English–1500s smarte, late Middle English– smart; Scottish pre-1700 smairt, pre-1700 smairte, pre-1700 smarte, pre-1700 smartt, pre-1700 1700s– smart, pre-1700 1800s smert. Origin: Probably a variant or alteration of another lexical item. Etymon: English smiertu. Etymology: Probably (as implied by the early Middle English forms smirte* and smierte: see note below) the reflex of an unattested Old English smiertu, showing a feminine (originally īn-* stem) derivative < the same base as smart adj. Compare (with different ablaut grade: compare smart v.¹) West Frisian smert, smerte, Middle Dutch smerte, smarte (Dutch smart), Middle Low German smerte, smērte, smarte, Old High German smerza (Middle High German smerze, German Schmerz), and also ( < Middle Low German smerte or its later reflex) Swedish smärta, Danish smerte.The early Middle English forms smirte and smierte suggest that their unattested Old English antecedent showed i-mutation. The Old English word was perhaps an abstract formation from the (o -grade) base of smart adj. of the same derivational pattern as ieldu eld n.² (from eald old adj.); the expected forms (showing breaking and subsequent i-mutation) would be early West Saxon smiertu , Anglian smertu . However, the rare early Middle English form smeorte appears to show the reflex of Old English smeort- , so it remains possible that the word instead derives from the (e -grade) base of (the present stem of) smart v.¹, which (after i-mutation) would yield Mercian smeort- (beside West Saxon smiert- , Northumbrian smiort- ). (Although this derivation would allow the Old English word to share the same ablaut grade of the base as its continental Germanic cognates, none of them shows any evidence of the i or j suffix required for i-mutation.) Furthermore, it is also entirely possible that the form smeorte may simply show later analogical influence of the (unmutated) present stem of the verb; similar influence of forms of smart v.¹ is probably also seen in the adjective (see discussion of forms of smart adj.). 1. a. Sharp, often intense, physical pain, esp. such as is caused by an external agency (a blow, sting, etc.) or by a wound; (also) an instance of this. ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > ill health > pain > types of pain > [noun] > smarting or stinging stingc900 smartingOE smarta1225 stanginga1300 stinging1398 mordicationa1413 stang1513 urtication1655 smartness1682 verberation1688 mordicancy1693 a1225 (?c1175) Poema Morale (Lamb.) 114 in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1868) 1st Ser. 167 (MED) Wa se seið þet he bo hal him solf wat best his smirte [a1200 Trin. Cambr. smierte, a1225 Egerton smeorte, ?c1250 Egerton smerte]. c1330 (?c1300) Bevis of Hampton (Auch.) l. 4193 (MED) For smertte Yuor in þat stounde Fel a knes vnto þe grounde. c1390 Castle of Love (Vernon) (1967) l. 1155 (MED) For vre woke þouȝtes he þolede smerte. 1493 Chastysing Goddes Chyldern (de Worde) v. sig. Avi/1 It felt noo smerte sharply tyll the rodde came. a1500 (a1450) Generides (Trin. Cambr.) l. 6242 For eny wo or smerte..I wist hym neuer on kynde. a1530 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfeccyon (1531) iii. f. CCiiii^v Yf he had pretended to suffre payne, & had feled no smarte. 1585 T. Washington tr. N. de Nicolay Nauigations Turkie ii. vi. 36 She procureth present death wythout any smart. 1641 J. Jackson True Evangelical Temper i. 46 He..inflicted both corporall smart and pecuniary mulcts upon them. 1681 R. Baxter Apol. Nonconformists Ministry 58 We knew it by our smarts, being sure to be whipt. 1717 A. Pope tr. Homer Iliad III. xi. 574 Raging with intolerable Smart, He writhes his Body. 1792 W. Cowper in Yearly Bill Mortality Parish All-Saints (Northampton) 1791–2 (single sheet) Strange world—that costs it so much Smart. 1817 S. T. Coleridge Biogr. Lit. II. xxviv. 293 There is a dull underpain that survives the smart which it had aggravated. 1870 W. C. Bryant tr. Homer Iliad I. xi. 374 Patroclus..applied a root Of bitter flavor to assuage the smart. 1903 ‘M. Harland’ Compl. Cook Bk. 13 Ammonia, applied instantly, neutralizes the venom and eases the smart. 1964 E. Waugh Little Learning ix. 230 Before I reached the point of no return, the Shropshire Lad was disturbed by a smart on the shoulder. 2012 L. Robinson Unclaimed Bride iii. 49 Ignoring the smart in her palm, she grabbed a towel before attempting to lift the pot this time. b. With of (the cause of the pain). Also in figurative contexts. ΚΠ 1477 W. Caxton tr. R. Le Fèvre Hist. Jason (1913) 184 Whan Iason sawe his hors dede & that he felt the smarte of the sore in his hede. a1530 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfeccyon (1531) iii. f. CCiiii^v He suffred the sharpnes & smart of payne, ye suche as neuer was suffred. 1596 Bp. W. Barlow tr. L. Lavater Three Christian Serm. iii. 142 Euen the Prophets..haue felt the smart of hunger. a1604 M. Hanmer Chron. Ireland 32 in J. Ware Two Hist. Ireland (1633) Ireland..felt little smart of the Romane sword. 1668 J. Denham Poems 115 Ah cruel Love!.. Again she feels the smart Of a fresh wound from his tyrannick Dart. 1726 J. Swift Gulliver I. i. i. 16 When I felt the smart of their Arrows upon my Face. 1749 J. Cleland Mem. Woman of Pleasure II. 159 The smart of the lashes was now converted into such a prickly heat, such fiery tinglings, as made me sigh. 1830 Olio 4 18/2 But the smart of a wound is felt no longer than while it lasts, and I soon forgot this mutilation. 1885 R. F. Burton tr. Arabian Nights' Entertainm. I. xxix. 296 For the smart of the stick I confessed, ‘It was I who stole it.’ 1922 Boys' Life Feb. 14/3 The smart of the arrows annoys him. He pulls the one in his foreleg and throws it savagely in the air. 1969 Life 24 Oct. 37/3 There should be more than a touch of remorse to add to the smart of the self-inflicted wounds. 2007 A. Browning Millionaire's Marriage Revenge 26 The first shock was passing and pent-up emotion rose to choke her throat and bring the smart of tears to her eyes. †c. Degree of smarting or painfulness. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > ill health > pain > types of pain > [noun] > smarting or stinging > degree of smarting smart1888 1888 ‘Bernard’ From World to Cloister v. 114 The discipline,..at its highest possible smart, never equalled..the sting of such a caning. 2. a. Mental pain or suffering; grief, sorrow, affliction; (sometimes) suffering of the nature of punishment or retribution. Also: an instance of this, a pang. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > suffering > [noun] sorec888 teeneOE sorrowOE workOE wrakeOE careOE gramec1000 harmOE howc1000 trayOE woweOE angec1175 derfnessc1175 sytec1175 unwinc1175 wosithc1200 ail?c1225 barrat?c1225 derf?c1225 grief?c1225 misease?c1225 misliking?c1225 ofthinkingc1225 passion?c1225 troublec1230 pinec1275 distress1297 grievancea1300 penancea1300 cumbermentc1300 languorc1300 cumbering1303 were1303 angera1325 strifea1325 sweama1325 woea1325 painc1330 tribulationc1330 illa1340 threst1340 constraintc1374 troublenessc1380 afflictiona1382 bruisinga1382 miseasetya1382 pressurec1384 exercisec1386 miscomfortc1390 mislikea1400 smarta1400 thronga1400 balec1400 painfulnessc1400 troublancec1400 smartness?c1425 painliness1435 perplexity?a1439 penalty?1462 calamity1490 penality1496 cumber?a1513 sussy1513 tribule1513 afflict?1529 vexation of spirit1535 troublesomeness1561 hoe1567 grievedness1571 tribulance1575 languishment1576 thrall1578 tine1590 languorment1593 aggrievedness1594 obturbation1623 afflictedness1646 erumny1657 pathos1684 shock1705 dree1791 vex1815 wrungnessa1875 dukkha1886 thinkache1892 sufferation1976 the mind > emotion > suffering > sorrow or grief > [noun] rueeOE teeneOE sorrowOE gramec1000 sytec1175 ruthc1225 dolea1240 balec1275 sighinga1300 dolour13.. ermingc1300 heartbreakc1330 discomfortc1350 griefa1375 tristourc1380 desolation1382 sichinga1387 tristesse1390 compassiona1400 rueinga1400 smarta1400 displeasure14.. gremec1400 heavity14.. dillc1420 notea1425 discomforturec1450 dolefulnessc1450 wandremec1450 regratec1485 doleance1490 trista1510 mispleasance1532 pathologiesa1586 balefulness1590 drearing1591 distressedness1592 woenessa1600 desertion1694 ruesomeness1881 schmerz1887 a1400 (c1303) R. Mannyng Handlyng Synne (Harl.) l. 3964 Ȝyf þou..felyst weyl yn þy herte Of a lytyl sorow or smerte. c1405 (c1395) G. Chaucer Canon's Yeoman's Tale (Ellesmere) (1875) l. 712 And yet for al my smert and al my grief For al my sorwe, labour, and meschief I koude neuere leue it in no wise. a1450 Generides (Pierpont Morgan) (1865) l. 1632 To tel you hou I caght this smert, And al myn evel hou it began. ?1533 G. Du Wes Introductorie for to lerne Frenche sig. Ei A man doutfull..is sone conuerted and tourned in smerte. 1590 E. Spenser Faerie Queene i. i. sig. B2^v Ne let vaine feares procure your needlesse smart, Where cause is none. 1647 A. Cowley Love's Visibility in Mistress v The very Eye betrays our inward smart. 1679 J. Bunyan Fear of God 102 Sorrow is the effect of smart, and smart the effect of faith. 1715 R. Nelson Addr. Persons of Quality 24 The Anguish and Smart that flows from Your Sins chain you to the Oar. 1766 T. Gray Let. 23 Sept. (1971) III. 936 Time..will cure the smart, & in some hearts soon blot out all the traces of sorrow. 1809 H. More Cœlebs in Search of Wife (ed. 2) II. xliv. 120 Examine your own heart;..it will be a salutary smart. 1872 J. S. Blackie Lays of Highlands 3 I love the oaks of Derry, And to leave them gives me smart. 1919 W. B. Yeats Wild Swans at Coole (new ed.) 5 There is salt to lengthen out the smart In the affections of our heart. 1963 Huntington Libr. Q. 26 310 In the reasonable voice of Colin he seeks to heal over the smarts and gouges he may have inflicted. 2005 K. Grenville Secret River iv. 217 The other smart, the one somewhere in his heart, was soon soothed by the feel of his wife's body in his arms, her breath in his ear. b. With of (the cause of the suffering). ΚΠ a1450 (c1412) T. Hoccleve De Regimine Principum (Harl. 4866) (1897) l. 106 (MED) Þe smert of þoght, I..knowe..His frosty swoot & fyry hote feruence. a1500 Lancelot of Laik (1870) 1051 So prikith hyme the smart Of hevynes, that stood vnto his hart. a1591 H. Smith 6 Serm. (1592) 44 He came..when man had sinned, that he might feele the smart of sinne. 1631 W. Gouge Gods Three Arrowes iii. §58. 298 No marvell then that they..be made sensibly to feele the smart of their folly. 1702 Eng. Theophrastus 141 All parties blame persecution when they feel the smart on't. 1827 H. Hallam Constit. Hist. Eng. I. i. 22 Some were sent to prison for hasty words, to which the smart of injury excited them. 1874 Pop. Sci. Monthly Jan. 321 We wonder to how many persons it is still a necessity, under the smart of a sudden disappointment, to..relieve the pressure of emotion by a few energetic expletives? 1916 J. Joyce Portrait of Artist v. 221 He felt with a smart of dejection that the man to whom he was speaking was a countryman of Ben Jonson. 1990 S. Winston Summer Conf. 69 A desire to be printed, to see a byline, outweighed in some degree the disappointment, the smart of having no voice in the sale as any huckster might. 2011 C. J. Singley Adopting Amer. ii. 44 No doubt William felt the smart of Deborah's rejection. †c. In plural. Loss, damage; adversity. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > adversity > [noun] > circumstance or occurrence plightc1300 woea1325 fanda1400 afflictionc1429 assayc1430 brier?1504 trouble?1521 distress1549 smarts1552 say?1572 infliction1590 disaccommodation1645 trial1754 ordeal1807 time1809 kill-cow1825 Via Crucis1844 Via Dolorosa1844 racket1877 pisser1957 1552 T. Barnabe Let. 1 Oct. in J. Strype Ann. Reformation (1824) VI. 486 Yf chance should fal..that a ship should be lost, the halls might easily bear the smarts therof. 1591 H. Savile tr. Tacitus Ende of Nero: Fower Bks. Hist. ii. 90 Neither did shee..participate any thing els of hir sonnes estate, saue onely the smarts of hir house when it fell. 3. Short for smart money n.¹; (also) a sum of this. Now historical and rare. ΘΚΠ society > trade and finance > fees and taxes > ransom > [noun] > payment for discharge of recruit ticketa1599 smart money1760 smart1802 1802 C. James New Mil. Dict. Smarts, the different sums which are received by recruiting parties under the head of Smart money, are frequently so called. 1826 W. N. Glascock Naval Sketch-bk. II. 28 Get hurt in their service—lose a finger or fin by the chime of a cask in the hold—or fall from aloft, and fracture your pate—then see where's your pension or ‘smart’. 1887 D. Donaldson Jamieson's Sc. Dict. Suppl. 321/1 He listed.., but paid the smert and wan hame. a1902 A. B. Davidson Waiting upon God (1904) xi. 266 We are fond of saying He paid our debts; He was our surety, our cautioner; He paid the smart of our arrears and defalcations. 1941 J. A. Williamson Ocean in Eng. Hist. iv. 105 James I allowed the interloper Sir Edward Michelborne to sail to the East and commit piracies for which the Company paid the smart. Compounds smartgrass n. U.S. = smartweed n. ΘΚΠ the world > plants > particular plants > plants and herbs > according to family > Polygonaceae (dock and allies) > [noun] > bistort and allies adderwortOE arsesmarta1300 persicarya1400 persicaria?a1450 polygonya1500 buckwheat1548 polygonum1562 passions1568 bistort1578 oysterloit1578 goat's wheat1597 peachwort1597 plumbago1597 redshank1597 snake-weed1597 dragonwort1656 smartweed1787 patience dock1796 red-legs1820 passion dock1828 smartgrass1837 mud knotweed1845 jointweed1866 tear-thumb1866 pinch-weed1883 knotweed1884 sachaline1901 1837 Thomsonian Recorder 5 174/1 Smart grass will render fresh meat sweet even after it has commenced decomposition. 1901 Outing Dec. 344 They..set about the improvement of duck shooting by sowing wild rice and smart grass. 1997 Kerrville (Texas) Daily Times 30 Jan. 8 a/4 During the drought, a lot of millet and smartgrass grew around the big reservoirs. smart ticket n. Nautical (now historical) a certificate signed by a ship's surgeon entitling a sailor to a payment or pension in compensation for a disability or injury suffered while in service; cf. smart money n.¹ 1a. ΘΚΠ society > armed hostility > military organization > [noun] > specific certificates pass1617 beating-order1721 smart ticket1734 papers1872 society > authority > lack of subjection > permission > [noun] > formal or authoritative permission > a formal or authoritative permission safe conduct?1404 licence1433 royalty1633 fiat1647 licent1676 liceat1686 privilege1715 sanction1720 smart ticket1734 post warrant1812 sanctionment1818 wine-warrant1857 carnet1926 1734 Regulations H.M. Service at Sea (ed. 2) iii. 132 He is to provide himself, before his going on board, with..a sufficient Number of Smart Tickets from the Office of the Clerk of the Acts. 1801 Ld. Nelson Let. 11 Oct. in Dispatches & Lett. (1845) IV. 504 I will send to the Gannet for Smart Tickets. 1881 Army & Navy Mag. Oct. 1155 The surgeon..was under the displeasure of the mutineers, because he had refused smart tickets to some of them that he thought were not entitled to them. 1991 P. O'Brian Nutmeg of Consol. (1993) iv. 101 He had..his proper discharge, smart-ticket and a commendation from his captain. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2013; most recently modified version published online June 2022). smartn.² Brit. /smɑːt/, U.S. /smɑrt/ Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: smart adj. Etymology: < smart adj. 1. A person who affects smartness in dress, manners, or speech. Frequently somewhat derogatory. Now rare.Common in 18th cent. ΘΚΠ the mind > attention and judgement > fashionableness > [noun] > smart person a man of (the first) feather1592 pink1602 smart1709 flasher1755 swell1786 dasher1807 smarty1847 city slicker1914 Roy1960 1709 J. Addison Tatler No. 157. ⁋16 Mr. Bickerstaff..summons all his Disciples, whether..Toasts, Smarts,..Musicians or Scrapers, to make their Appearance at the Playhouse. 1712 R. Steele Spectator No. 442. ⁋3 All Beaux, Rakes, Smarts,..and all Sorts of Wits. 1726 N. Amhurst Terræ-filius (ed. 2) II. xlvi. 93 I have given great offence to a large body of fine gentlemen there, call'd Smarts. 1753 Scots Mag. Oct. 491/2 I put on a sword, supped every night at a tavern,..and was universally confessed to be improved into a Smart. 1821 W. Scott Pirate II. i. 15 The word passed through among the young Templars, and the wits, and the smarts. 1859 J. R. Green Oxf. during Last Cent. ii. iii. 55/2 The smart of the day [sc. in the 18th cent.] rises late in an age of early risers. 1987 Daily Tel. 28 Oct. 17 Exit the Sloanes, enter the Smarts... Always to be perfectly dressed, shiningly healthy and to have the latest kind of designer water in all the guest bedrooms. 2. With the and plural agreement. Those who are neat, clever, witty, etc.; smart people or things as a class (in various senses of smart adj. II.). ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > knowledge, what is known > [noun] > knowledgeable persons smart1865 1831 Examiner 23 Jan. 54/2 For the admirers of the smart, and the modern, and the whimsical, there are the Pavilion and new buildings at Brighton. 1865 Manch. Guardian 20 Sept. 3/5 In this race, the smart and the strong go ahead; the timid or the dull go to the wall. 1892 Rev. of Reviews June 587/2 This latter class [sc. talented people] must have the further..talent for..amusing the rich, the smart, and the pretty. 1928 Rotarian Apr. 11/1 We are living in a somewhat jazzy age. The smart and the flippant seem very much to the front. 1957 T. Gunn Sense of Movement 22 The smart are dead waist-down. 2004 Utne Reader Aug. 90/1 The Blogosphere—a land where the smart get smarter, the connected get even more connected, and the losers go home. †3. Smartness in speech or writing, esp. of a forced or artificial nature. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > wit, wittiness > [noun] > brilliancy of wit or language > in conversation, writing wit1542 salt1574 smartness1643 esprita1797 smart1845 society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > inelegance > [adjective] > forced high-strained1565 constrained1571 forced1583 overstrained1599 strained1609 epitonic1879 smart1899 1845 Ld. Tennyson Let. Oct. (1982) I. 249 I said something that offended him and..he..told me that I was ‘affecting the smart’. 1899 Westm. Gaz. 25 Oct. 3/2 This needless introduction of the presumably ‘smart’ would ruin the art of any novel. 4. colloquial. a. Originally and chiefly North American. (a) In plural. Intelligence, esp. natural intelligence; cleverness, acumen, nous; wits. Chiefly with the.Also with modifying word (see also book smarts n. at book n. Compounds 3,street smarts n. at street n. and adj. Compounds 4). ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > sharpness, shrewdness, insight > [noun] sharpnessc897 yepshipc1000 insightc1175 yepleȝȝcc1175 yephedea1250 wit1297 fellnessa1382 policyc1440 discerningc1450 policec1450 inspectiona1527 perceivance1534 aptitude1548 sagacity1548 acuity?1549 nimbleness1561 acumen1579 seeing eye1579 esprit1591 acuteness1601 depth1605 penetration1605 knowingness1611 shrewdnessa1616 piercingnessa1628 discernment1646 sharpwittedness1647 nasuteness1660 arguteness1662 sagaciousness1678 perceptivity1700 keenness1707 cuteness1768 intuition1780 recollectedness1796 long-headedness1818 perceptiveness1823 kokum1848 incision1862 incisiveness1865 penetrativeness1873 flair1881 hard-boiledness1912 smart1964 spikiness1977 sus1979 1940 Amer. Speech 15 355 Pegler..is also sure ‘we are suffering from a very bad case of the Smarts’, which means in his language that there is too much education loose in the world today.] 1964 N. Amer. Rev. Autumn 67/1 He is pretty high in the smarts dept., since he is a bonafide doctor with a degree and all that. 1968 Ebony Mar. 16 (advt.) If you're good, we'll take you on. In management. Where you can use all the smarts you picked up in college. 1972 H. Kemelman Monday Rabbi took Off xlv. 263 The whole story is a little weak... I mean, this kid of yours has the normal amount of smarts. 1981 Guardian Weekly 26 July 15/4 They complain..that the soldiers have neither the smarts nor the education to work the complicated weapons of modern warfare. 1990 Vogue Sept. 96/2 British dance acts..display the dance-floor smarts of the UK's new style scientists. 2008 S. Toltz Fraction of Whole v. 556 I think I'll leave this manuscript here..and maybe one day it'll be found and someone will have the smarts to publish it posthumously. (b) In singular in same sense. ΚΠ 1967 D. Hamma Motorcycle Mommas 22 Them bastards didn't have no smart at all. 1973 R. O'N. Bristow Faraway Drummer iv. 54 If you got the smart to get in bed with the queen in the first place, you can't be all thick. 1977 N.Y. Times 9 Oct. 26 Mrs. Maynard said that Mr. Miller..‘doesn't have enough smart to run a union as big as the United Mine Workers’. 1990 E. Goldrick Love is in Cards vi. 117 Nobody else have the smart to plant the root this year. b. In plural. Programming which makes a computer capable of some independent action; the ability of a device or other machine to vary its behaviour in response to differing requirements, varying situations, or past events. Also: processing power. Cf. smart adj. 10b. ΚΠ 1970 A. B. Veaner in Minutes 75th Meeting Assoc. Res. Libr. 18 The type of machine one can have all to oneself will probably be a stripped down model with a limited repertoire of software ‘smarts’, and accommodating few peripheral devices. 1989 Economist 2 Dec. (Surv. Japanese Technol.) 4/2 [Products] have to be packed with ‘technological smarts’—in short, be able to make decisions and remember things, optimise their own performance, even anticipate customer's whims. 2002 EnRoute Aug. 29/1 Link the smarts of millions of desktop computers together via the Internet, and you end up with the mother of all supercomputers. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022). smartadj. Brit. /smɑːt/, U.S. /smɑrt/ Forms: Old English–early Middle English smeart, early Middle English smært (south-west midlands), early Middle English smeort (south-western and south-west midlands), early Middle English smort (west midlands), Middle English smartt, Middle English smertt, Middle English smyrte, Middle English–1500s smerte, Middle English–1500s (1800s– regional) smert, Middle English–1600s smarte, Middle English– smart, late Middle English smrt (transmission error), late Middle English suert (transmission error), 1900s– smaart (English regional); Scottish pre-1700 smarte, pre-1700 1700s– smart, pre-1700 1900s– smert. Origin: A word inherited from Germanic. Etymology: < an ablaut variant (o -grade) of the same West Germanic base as smart v.¹Some of the Middle English forms probably result from association with smart v.¹ and smart n.¹ The expected reflex of Old English smeart is Middle English smart. The forms smeort, smort perhaps show influence of the present stem of smart v.¹, which reflects an original e -grade base (compare discussion of the variant smeorte at smart n.¹). The rare form smyrte suggests an antecedent with i-mutation; compare discussion of forms at smart n.¹ (and compare also forms of smart v.¹). Forms such as smert could ultimately reflect either the o -grade of the base (with i-mutation) or the e -grade; by early modern English the reflex of smert- has usually merged with the reflex of smart- (compare forms of smart n.¹ and smart v.¹ and discussion at those entries). Use of the word as a male personal name is apparently recorded for 1066 in the form Smert in Domesday Bk. (1086); also attested early as a surname, e.g. Lifwinus Smart (c1180), Hugone Smart (1209), and as a surname element, e.g. Christiana Smartknave (1279). These uses imply earlier currency of the use of the word with reference to a person (compare senses 8b, 9). I. Painful, uncomfortable; sharp, severe, intense. 1. a. Of an instrument, such as a rod, whip, etc.: inflicting or causing pain; biting, stinging; (of a weapon) sharp and cutting. Now rare and chiefly in historical context. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > manner of action > violent action or operation > severity > [adjective] heavyc825 grimc900 strongeOE hardeOE drearyOE eileOE sweerOE deara1000 bitterOE tartc1000 smartOE unridec1175 sharp?c1225 straitc1275 grievousc1290 fellc1330 shrewda1387 snella1400 unsterna1400 vilea1400 importunea1425 ungainc1425 thrallc1430 peisant1483 sore?a1513 weighty1540 heinous?1541 urgent?1542 asperous?1567 dure1567 spiny1586 searching1590 hoara1600 vengible1601 flinty1613 tugging1642 atrocious1733 uncannya1774 severe1774 stern1830 punishing1833 hefty1867 solid1916 society > authority > punishment > corporal punishment > instrument or place of corporal punishment > [adjective] > inflicting pain (of instrument) smartOE sharpa1400 OE Homily: Sermo ad Populum Dominicis Diebus (Lamb. 489) in A. S. Napier Wulfstan (1883) 295 Ic wylle swingan eow mid þam smeartestum swipum. a1225 (?OE) MS Vesp. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1868) 1st Ser. 243 Þu ahst to habben ehte wepnecin, þa beoð sceold, helm and brenie, swrd and spere, stede and twei sporen, and ane smearte ȝerd. ?1316 Short Metrical Chron. (Royal) l. 929 in J. Ritson Anc. Eng. Metrical Romanceës (1802) II. 309 (MED) He was yschote With an arewe kene ant smert. a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 15785 Wit maces and wit neues smert vn-rekenli on him ran. 1447 O. Bokenham Lives of Saints (Arun.) (1938) l. 1593 Whan he on þe [MS ye] crosce..Heng nakyd, fastnyd wyth nayles smerte. c1480 (a1400) St. Vincent l. 157 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) II. 263 In a frame [he] stent hyme..with smert cordis sa faste til senonis ore hyd ma leste. ?1567 M. Parker Whole Psalter lv. 159 Hys wordes were felt, yet were sharpe dartes and smart. 1594 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 2 iii. ii. 329 Their softest tuch as smart as lyzards stings. 1604 J. Godskall Arke of Noah sig. A3 We at diuers times haue felt this rod, and also at this present time in Flanders they doo taste of this smart-whip. 1673 J. Flavell Fountain of Life xvi. 198 Sometimes he spares their outward, and afflicts their inner man, which is a much smarter rod. ?1705 E. Hickeringill Surv. Earth 44 A Whip and Lash is of great and necessary use to slash..Offenders that debauch this vile Earth; and the smarter the better. 1796 Augusta Fitzherbert II. xxx. 65 I met one of them..dressed in a riding habit, and flourishing in her hand a smart whip, with a spur at the end. 1813 Dr. Marshall in Addr. Relative to Election in Durham 37/2 The Darlington colt, Who trainers inform me is subject to bolt: And this when he feels the smart whip on his flank. 1899 Cornish Mag. 2 394/2 Mr. Lethbridge is both master and huntsman, and is assisted by a smart whip. 1976 E. S. Morgan Meaning of Independence iii. 63 A navy would be a smart rod, for, as James Madison had earlier suggested to him, ‘A single frigate under the orders of Congress could make it the interest of any one of the Atlantic States to pay its quota.’ †b. Of land: rugged; (of an object) sharp or rough to the touch. Cf. sharp adj. 2. Obsolete. rare. ΘΚΠ the world > the earth > land > ground > [adjective] > rough sharpc893 roughOE foec1400 rupt?a1425 aspera1492 scragged1519 smarta1525 ruggeda1533 crabbed1579 broken1599 tutty-nosed1681 ruggish1838 a1525 Eng. Conquest Ireland (Trin. Dublin) (1896) 128 (MED) For hyt was smert lond, woddy, & of Marche, & ferr. c1540 (?a1400) Gest Historiale Destr. Troy (2002) f. 16^v Þis stone..Be it smethe owþer smert smaragden hit hat. †c. Of an instrument of pain: severe or hard on (also upon) one. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ society > authority > strictness > [adjective] > severe or stern > severe upon smart1549 side1825 to be rough on1868 the world > action or operation > behaviour > bad behaviour > harshness or severity > [adjective] > severe upon smart1549 side1825 1549 T. Sternhold Al Such Psalmes of Dauid xxxii. sig. Diiii Thy hande on me, So [grievous was] and smerte. 1648 Bp. J. Hall Breathings Devout Soul x. 14 When thy hand hath been smart and heavy upon me. 1679 J. Bunyan Fear of God 81 When the rod was most smart upon them, they made great conscience of giving way to their first fears wherewith they were made afraid by the Spirit. 2. Of a blow, stroke, etc.: sufficiently hard or severe to cause pain; sharp, stinging; (in later use sometimes without implication of pain being caused) delivered quickly and sharply (cf. sense 8a). Also in figurative contexts. ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > ill health > pain > [adjective] > causing pain > of a blow or weapon smarta1200 sorea1300 sucky1934 a1200 (?OE) MS Trin. Cambr. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1873) 2nd Ser. 207 Mannes lichame ihalsneð iwis þenne me hine pined mid hunger..and mid stiue wedes next þe liche and smerte smiten of smale longe ȝerden. c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1978) l. 10660 [They] uppen Colgrime smiten mid swiðe smærte [c1300 Otho smorte] biten. c1330 (?c1300) Bevis of Hampton (Auch.) l. 2883 (MED) Beues þanne wiþ strokes smerte Smot þe dragoun to þe herte. a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 25543 Iesu..Sufferd..Dintes sare and smert. a1500 (?a1400) Sir Torrent of Portyngale (1887) l. 2472 (MED) Smert boffettes they yeldyd there. 1574 A. Golding tr. J. Calvin Serm. on Job (new ed.) cxlv. 747 When as wee feele so smart blowes, and the hand of God maketh vs to quake. 1604 W. Shakespeare Hamlet iii. i. 52 How smart a lash that speech doth giue my conscience. View more context for this quotation 1664 H. Power Exper. Philos. iii. 160 With a few smart strokes of a great Mall, or Hammer, you beat the one end of it. 1764 T. Reid Inq. Human Mind v. §6 Suppose him first to be pricked with a pin—this will, no doubt, give a smart sensation. 1789 J. Bonner Bee-master's Compan. xxiii. 219 With a knife loose the edges of the combs from the hive all around, and give the hive a smart knock on the floor. 1813 Sporting Mag. 42 68 Cooper planted a smart hit on his adversary's neck. 1859 ‘G. Eliot’ Adam Bede II. iv. xxx. 293 When a man's got his limbs whole, he can bear a smart cut or two. 1921 S. Comstock Daughter of Helen Kent i. 4 Its passengers huddled indoors, cowering from the smart whips of the December air. 1939 F. D. Tredrey Pilot's Summer 28 If you bale out and land in water..a smart rap will release the whole lot and you can swim free. 1993 Dog World June 107/1 Food is held out to the dog, and as soon as he snaps or only merely sniffs at it he is given a smart blow. †3. Of an event, time, etc.: dreadful, dire; difficult; testing. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > fear > quality of inspiring fear > quality of terribleness > [adjective] eislichc888 eyesfulOE awfulc1175 smarta1200 ferlya1225 sternc1275 grisea1300 uglya1300 dreadfula1325 fell?c1335 stout1338 perilousc1380 terriblec1400 ghastfulc1449 timorous1455 epouventable1477 bedreadc1485 dreadablec1490 dreadc1540 buggisha1555 dreaded1556 monster-like1561 dire1567 scareful1567 terrifying1577 scary1582 direful1583 affrighting1592 dismal1594 affrightful1603 diral1606 tirable1607 frighting1619 scaring1641 affrighteninga1651 formidolous1656 terrific1667 terrifical1677 atrocious1733 terrorful1789 orful1845 lurid1850 terrorsome1890 turble1893 timorsome1894 like the wrath of God1936 a1200 MS Trin. Cambr. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1873) 2nd Ser. 61 (MED) Vuele he us briseð gif he binimeð us ure agte..oðer þurh orf qualm, oðer þurh smerte gier. c1330 Simonie (Auch.) (1991) l. 392 God..sen[t]e a derþe on eorþe and made hit ful smart. a1400 (c1303) R. Mannyng Handlyng Synne (Harl.) l. 8539 (MED) For shame he myȝt nat telle how smart Þe temptyng þat come to hys hert. a1463 (c1440) S. Scrope tr. C. de Pisan Epist. of Othea (Pierpont Morgan) (1970) 109 Hector me must pronounce thi deeth smerte. 4. Of pain (physical or mental), sorrow, etc.: sharp, keen, painful, severe. Also of a wound or other cause of discomfort. ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > ill health > pain > [adjective] > causing pain sorec897 smartc1300 throlya1375 snella1400 dolorousc1400 painfulc1400 sensible1502 afflictive1576 doloriferous1599 exasperated1611 dolorific1634 painable1649 algetic1879 algesic1880 paining1891 the mind > emotion > suffering > mental anguish or torment > [adjective] > severe heavya1000 tartc1000 unridec1175 unsoftc1275 uglya1300 smartc1300 sternc1300 cruelc1384 sharpc1386 shrewda1387 snella1400 painousa1450 painlyc1460 sensible1502 terrible1509 heinous?1541 severe1747 the world > health and disease > ill health > pain > types of pain > [adjective] > relating to agony or torment > causing agony or torment sharpc1000 grievousc1290 smartc1300 fellc1330 unsufferablea1340 keena1375 poignantc1390 rending?c1400 furiousc1405 stoutc1425 unbearablec1449 agonizing1570 tormenting1575 cruciable1578 raging1590 tormentuous1597 pungent1598 racking1598 acute1615 wrenching1618 excruciating1664 grinding1681 excruciate1773 discruciating1788 unendurable1801 of bare sufferance1823 perialgic1893 c1300 Havelok (Laud) (1868) l. 2055 And mikel sorwe in his herte For hise wundes, þat we[r] so smerte. 1372 in E. Wilson Descriptive Index Lyrics John of Grimestone's Preaching Bk. (1973) 33 (MED) Hand, heued, foot, herte Criȝet Crist for wondis smerte. a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 58 Wyt chaunce of ded, or chaunce of hert, þat soft began has endyng smart. c1450 ( G. Chaucer Bk. Duchess (Fairf. 16) (1871) l. 507 Hym thought hys sorwes were so smerte. 1513 G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneid v. xii. 63 The fadir Eneas, smyt with this smart cais. 1562 A. Brooke tr. M. Bandello Tragicall Hist. Romeus & Iuliet f. 50^v And though with greater payne she cloked sorowes smart: Yet did her paled face disclose the passions of her hart. 1678 Lively Oracles iii. §5. 264 That long train of smart calamities which succeeded his sin. 1688 J. Bunyan Good News for Vilest of Men 75 The Gospel..threatneth them with the heaviest and smartest Judgments. 1740 Athenæum 24 Sept. 1887 The whey..gives me pretty smart colicks. 1753 S. Richardson Hist. Sir Charles Grandison I. 187 Sir Rowland took notice, that I must have had a smart illness for the time, by my alter'd countenance. 1826 S. T. Coleridge Coll. Lett. (1971) VI. 648 Henry suffered a Relapse..with a smart attack of fever, oppression on the chest and dyspnoea. 1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VIII. 488 There may be high fever,..nausea, vomitings, smart diarrhœa and so on. 1907 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 25 Apr. 65/2 In patients suffering from gastric ulcer smart pain is produced at once. 1985 T. Valentine & C. Valentine Appl. Kinesiology (1987) ii. 16 A smart pain served as my morning alarm clock for nearly thirty years, arousing me promptly at six daily regardless of the firmness of my mattress. 5. a. Esp. of a natural force or process: strong, vigorous, intense; bracing, keen. Cf. sharp adj. 4d, 4j. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > manner of action > vigour or energy > [adjective] > of action: involving or requiring vigour > vigorous or intense in operation strongeOE smartc1300 steevec1300 keen1340 piercinga1400 perceantc1400 forta1513 incisive1528 vigorous1548 forcible1555 emphatical1581 searching1590 nervous1616 strenuous1632 arrowy1650 intent1650 urging1658 sinewous1663 emphatic1689 drastic1808 needling1839 shrewd1842 gimlet1894 c1300 St. Patrick's Purgatory (Laud) l. 245 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 207 (MED) A smart wind..on heom bleuȝ wel faste, Þat heom þouȝte heo weren i-barnd. a1425 (a1400) Prick of Conscience (Galba & Harl.) (1863) l. 3257 Þai er dungen..With smert stormes als of wynd and rayn. c1450 (?a1400) Wars Alexander (Ashm.) l. 1309 Quen it was smeten in small with þe smert waȝes. c1540 (?a1400) Gest Historiale Destr. Troy (2002) f. 146 Ffor the smorther & the smoke of þe smert loghys..All the Citie might se the sercle aboute. a1682 Sir T. Browne Let. to Friend (1690) 6 Sepulchral Fires and smart Flames. 1692 J. Ray Misc. Disc. v. 91 A smart and continuing Rain. 1711 J. Swift Jrnl. to Stella 31 Jan. (1948) I. 178 We are here in as smart a frost for the time as I have seen. 1726 T. Smith Jrnl. (1849) 265 This has been a very smart, close winter. 1774 E. Long Hist. Jamaica II. xl. 240 Into these basons they let a smart stream of water, to loosen the earth. 1800 Med. Jrnl. 5 31 They..had a smart fever for three days, and then an eruption. 1875 R. Hunt & F. W. Rudler Ure's Dict. Arts (ed. 7) III. 1055 The assistant must look to the oil, and bring it to a smart simmer. 1900 J. Slocum Sailing Alone around World (1901) xvii. 235 It was blowing a smart gale and was too rough for the sloop to be towed with safety. 1992 B. Unsworth Sacred Hunger xxxviii. 429 Sea breeze came in but soon overpowered by a smart tornado obliging us to furl all and come to anchor in 25 fathoms. b. Of a substance (esp. alcoholic drink) or its taste: pungent, acrid; sharp, piquant; invigorating to the palate. Also in figurative contexts. Cf. sharp adj. 6a. Now rare. ΘΚΠ the world > food and drink > drink > intoxicating liquor > types or qualities of intoxicating liquor > [adjective] > brisk or sharp smart1372 brisk1600 sprightly?1600 pert1705 1372 in E. Wilson Descriptive Index Lyrics John of Grimestone's Preaching Bk. (1973) 45 (MED) Iewes..Menkten eysyl with galle smerte, And bodin him drinken þo. 1567 G. Turberville tr. G. B. Spagnoli Eglogs iii. f. 20 Hee tels a wofull tale that tasteth smarte. 1664 H. Power Exper. Philos. i. 33 Both in the keenest and smartest, as well as in the weakest and most watrish Vineger. 1684 J. Haines Epil. to Lacy's Sir Hercules Buffoon (single sheet) These new Wits Relish, small, smart, Bottle Beer. 1702 C. Beaumont J. Beaumont's Psyche (new ed.) ix. lxxxi. 128 A flood, to which..smart Gall is dropping Myrrh. 1710 T. Fuller Pharmacopœia Extemporanea 3 The smarter and staler [ale is], the more it openeth and detergeth. 1762 O. Goldsmith Citizen of World I. 241 It will eat best with some smart bottled beer. 1818 J. Keats Let. 29 June (1995) 110 We have now begun upon whisky,..very smart stuff it is. 1912 Farmers' Cycl. (1916) I. 332 The vegetable drugs—fenugreek, fennel, anise, gentian, ginger and pepper—were employed in sufficient quantities to produce an agreeable odor and smart taste. 1984 C. G. Hunter Wildflowers of Arkansas 68 The leaves of smartweeds have a sharp or ‘smart’ taste. The knotty stem-joints are a trademark of the genus. c. Of a battle, attack, etc.: fierce, violent; esp. vigorous and quick. Cf. sharp adj. 4c. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > manner of action > vigour or energy > [adjective] > of action: involving or requiring vigour > carried out or proceeding with vigour stiffc1250 busyc1275 greatc1275 sternc1275 smart?a1400 stark1489 thronga1525 vigorous1524 stout1582 intensive1605 spiritful?1611 warm1627 intense1645 mettlesome1645 spirited1670 mettled1682 sturdy1697 energetic1700 vivid1702 robustful1800 toughish1840 lively1844 full out1920 ?a1400 (a1338) R. Mannyng Chron. (Petyt) ii. 21 (MED) Þe Danes stode þam ageyn with bataile fulle smerte. a1450 (?a1300) Richard Coer de Lyon (Caius) (1810) l. 5389 Kyng Richard..Gaff the batayle hard and smerte, That no Paynym myght withsterte. 1672 tr. G. Gualdo Priorato Hist. Managem. Cardinal Mazarine II. ii. ii. 200 On the 14. of August, there happen'd a smart skirmish, in which the two Counts..and Turenne's Lieutenant-Collonel was slain. 1791 G. Morris in J. Sparks Life G. Morris (1832) II. 137 A good smart action would be useful rather than pernicious. 1846 H. H. Wilson Hist. Brit. India 1805–35 II. ii. 51 A smart affair with the enemy took place. 1885 Manch. Examiner 21 Mar. 6/2 A smart passage at arms between his Grace and Lord Bramwell. 1921 W. Foster Early Trav. India 288 A Portuguese carrack was overtaken and destroyed, after a smart encounter in which the English commander was slain. 1985 P. R. Newman Atlas of Eng. Civil War 70 On 15 August the royalist cavalry won a smart action at Ribble Bridge, near Preston. d. Of a sound: short and sharp; abrupt and loud. ΚΠ c1400 (?a1300) Kyng Alisaunder (Laud) (1952) l. 1183 (MED) To mouþe he sett his olyfaunt; He bloweþ smert and loude sounes. 1607 G. Markham Cavelarice v. 54 The noyse and smart sounde of the lash of his whippe. 1716 B. Church Entertaining Passages Philip's War i. 38 In the Evening they heard a smart firing at a distance from them. 1752 London Mag. Dec. 535/2 The electricity breaks off with a smart crack, and a spark of fire. 1829 Chapters Physical Sci. 463 It demonstrates its presence both by a sudden flash and a smart report. 1851 N. Hawthorne Twice-told Tales I. viii. 154 That smart, slapping sound, produced by an open hand upon tender flesh. 1913 T. Hardy Changed Man 200 The hoofs of his horse sending up a smart sound now that he had reached the hard road of the drive. 1991 N.Y. Mag. 25 Nov. 30/2 The smart crack of a bat and the roar of engines. e. Of an incline (esp. a hill): (relatively) steep. Cf. sharp adj. 10d. Now rare. ΘΚΠ the world > the earth > land > landscape > high land > slope > [adjective] > steep > somewhat smart1670 steepish1814 1670 S. Wilson Lassels's Voy. Italy (new ed.) i. 58 I went vp a smart hill called Mount Aurigo. 1794 N. Parry Jrnl. in Kentucky Hist. Soc. Reg. (1936) 34 385 I found the mouth wide enough to..walk in strait; and the bottom was dry; it being on the top of a smart hill. 1833 Jrnl. Steam Transport & Husb. Dec. 55/2 It has been making almost daily trips to Edgeware, upon which road there are two smart hills. 1855 Jrnl. Hort. Soc. 9 130 The great accumulation of heat, too, at the upper portion of the roof; how unnatural, how wasteful!.. Ten per cent of the fuel is wasted in this angle, especially in high houses with a smart incline. 1918 J. Clarke Japan at First Hand xvi. 237 It is a winding fairy-like walk up a smart incline to the foot of the falls. 6. a. Of words, etc.: sharp, severe; cutting, acrimonious. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > vigour or force > [adjective] > mordant smartc1330 unkeen?a1425 mordant1474 piquant1521 pugnant1537 quick1542 nippingc1547 nippy1575 cutting1582 yarking1593 stinging1600 pointed1617 pungent1619 toothed1628 aculeate1640 mordacious1648 aculeated1655 piperaceous1674 peppery1826 pointy1883 lashing1900 c1330 (?c1300) Guy of Warwick (Auch.) l. 1365 (MED) With þat ich word wel smert, Gij him smot vn-to þe hert. a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 3034 Abraham..thoght þis wordes war to smert. 1550 J. Heywood Hundred Epigrammes xxxiv. sig. Biiii^v To whiche smart mocke, and wyly begylyng, He..saied [etc.]. 1639 T. Fuller Hist. Holy Warre ii. xxiv. 74 He would often give a smart jest, which would make the place both blush and bleed where it lighted. 1675 tr. W. Camden Hist. Princess Elizabeth (rev. ed.) iii. 269 A Book which was written..against the Marriage in a smart and stinging Style. 1735 J. Swift Gulliver in Wks. III. 128 He seldom failed of a smart Word or two upon my Littleness. 1751 Affecting Narr. H.M.S. Wager 128 This smart Remonstrance touch'd the Lieutenant to the very Heart. 1825 Gentleman's Mag. 95 i. 397 ‘To start’ is to apply a smart word to an idle or forgetful person. 1884 C. H. D. Stocker Between Acts I. iv. 89 He..had come in it to-day without eliciting a single sneer or smart word from anybody. 1918 W. H. Hodgson Captain Gault ii. 48 I gave him a smart word or two before all the saloon-full; and I fancy they agreed with me. 1999 R. Maxwell Queen's Bastard 59 The midwife knew she could afford a smart word or two, for in this room it was she and she alone who stood between life and death for the Queen and her child. †b. Of a person: sharp in criticism or comment upon or with another. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > disapproval > criticism > [adjective] > sharply sharp?c1225 quipping1542 sharp-fanged1598 wittya1616 spinousa1638 scalding1641 spinose1660 smart1665 acid1756 caustic1771 rapped-out1831 1665 J. Sergeant Let. from Author of Sure-footing 5 in Discov. Groundlesness & Insincerity Ld. Down's Dissuasive If you advance this Civil piece of Atheistry, you must pardon me if I be smart with you. 1669 J. Dryden Wild Gallant ii. ii. 15 You are very smart upon one another Gentlemen. 1692 J. Washington tr. J. Milton Def. People Eng. iii. 59 The Lawyer, whoever he be, that you are so smart upon, was not so much out of the way. 1699 R. Bentley Diss. Epist. Phalaris (new ed.) 390 He fansied, he was very smart upon me; but as it generally happens with him, he lashes himself. 1713 C. Johnson Successful Pyrate i. i. 6 Bor. Spare thy Complements, and thy Chine, thou worthy Son of Musk and Civet—Tul. Ha! Tart as a Barberry; ever smart upon your Friends, but 'tis the Token of your Esteem. †7. Distinct, sharp, clearly outlined. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > space > shape > [adjective] > having a definite outline smart1644 defineda1727 the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > visibility > [adjective] > clearly visible > sharp or distinct graphical1626 smart1644 sharp1675 vivid1690 briska1727 unblurred1809 vive1825 clear1835 shadeless1835 film-free1880 eidetic1924 crisp1937 deblurred1968 1644 K. Digby Two Treat. i. xxxi. 271 [A] blacke carpet to limit both endes of it (which serueth to make the colours the smarter). 1753 W. Hogarth Anal. Beauty xiii. 182 These objects which..come forwardest to the view, must have large, strong, and smart oppositions. a1806 J. Barry in R. N. Wornum Lect. on Painting (1848) 187 The cast and manner of their several foldings, some more smart and frequently interrupted, others more flowing. 1870 G. M. Hopkins Jrnls. & Papers (1959) 201 The day had been very bright and clear, distances smart. II. Senses relating to qualities of speed, intelligence, neatness, and similar qualities. 8. a. Of an action, movement, etc.: quickly or deftly executed; fast, rapid; (of pace) briskly maintained.In quot. a1325: (of a legal right) quickly effective, immediate.Sometimes with connotations of skill or cleverness of execution: cf. sense 10a. ΘΚΠ the world > time > relative time > immediacy > [adjective] ferlyc893 cofc1000 swiftc1000 smarta1325 suddenc1390 undelayed1439 wightlaykec1450 short1480 present1489 indelayed1523 on or upon a (or the) sudden1558 immediate1569 instant1598 momentaneous1657 abrupt1725 presto1767 summary1771 momentary1799 pistolgraph1859 fast1863 the world > movement > rate of motion > swiftness > [adjective] > specifically of movement or action radeOE swifta1050 smarta1325 quickc1325 round1525 main1567 rapid1605 slashing1824 the world > movement > rate of motion > swiftness > [adjective] > specifically of pace smart1748 rattling1768 slapping1812 fast-paced1838 clipping1845 spanking1857 a1325 Statutes of Realm (Rawl. B.520) (2011) vii. 45 Þer nis no writ..wareþoru þe plaintifs habbez smarttere [altered from smattere] riȝt þane þoru þe writ of nouele disseisine. a1425 ( H. Daniel Liber Uricrisiarum (Wellcome 225) 369 Ȝif þe spatle appere gros in begynnynge,..& son efter þat turn to thyk, god takyn for hys smart changynge. ?c1450 (a1388) tr. Richard of Wallingford Exafrenon (Digby) in J. D. North Wks. Richard of Wallingford (1976) I. 211 The Mone..is evermore of more vertue when she is of smert movynge. 1519 W. Horman Vulgaria xxxii. f. 283^v Geue a smarte lose with thyn arowe and thy stryng. 1664 H. Power Exper. Philos. ii. 143 You shall see the water spontaneously arise to a competent height in the Tube, with a quick and smart ascent. 1682 C. Ness Astrol. & Theol. Disc. 13 Jupiter hath a smarter Motion, finishing his Revolution in about 12. Years, whereas Saturn doth require about 30. 1748 D. Hume True Acct. Behaviour & Conduct A. Stewart 17 Before they reached Edinburgh, they had come to a pretty smart Gallop. 1788 Gentleman's Mag. Aug. 445/1 It proceeded slowly up William-street..; after which it set off with a smart pace for Powers-court. 1818 Sporting Mag. 3 29 Newton by a smart left-handed flip, drew the claret in profusion from his mouth. 1895 Daily News 17 May 3/7 Chatterton being out to a very smart catch at mid-on. 1935 D. L. Sayers Gaudy Night xii. 257 The Proctor's bull-dogs..had come through the archway at a smart trot. 1940 M. Dickens Mariana v. 147 When she wanted to execute a smart tacking movement she would shout excitedly, ‘Look out, I'm going to turn!’ 2006 Western Daily Press (Nexis) 26 July 13 The local RSPB official who dared to turn up to watch came near to being lynched before beating a smart retreat. b. Of a person or (occasionally) a thing: quick in action or response; lively, active; prompt. Frequently in predicative use. Cf. to look smart at Phrases 1. Chiefly regional in later use. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > manner of action > rapidity or speed of action or operation > [adjective] > prompt to act radeOE yevereOE snellOE ratheOE spacka1200 quickc1300 eagerc1325 readyc1330 tallc1374 smartc1380 desirousc1386 rifec1390 promptc1425 speedy?1504 nimblea1547 present1548 go-ahead1825 c1380 Sir Ferumbras (1879) l. 5575 Þe Sarzyn, þat was fers & smert, howel oppon þe helm he gert. a1400 (c1303) R. Mannyng Handlyng Synne (Harl.) l. 4816 Man þat wel spedyþ hym yn dede And messager smart at nede. c1500 How Good Wife taught her Daughter (Ashm.) l. 194 (MED) When þi seruantes haue do þer werke, To pay þer hyre loke þou be smerte. 1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 324/2 Smarte, swyfte, soudayn. 1655 T. Fuller Church-hist. Brit. iv. 177 This year began the smart and active Councel of Basil. 1658 Sir T. Browne Hydriotaphia: Urne-buriall i. 3 Water hath proved the smartest grave; which in forty dayes swallowed almost mankinde. 1687 tr. Sallust Wks. 96 All the while Catiline, with the most active and smartest of his followers kept still in the head of his Men. 1795 J. O'Keeffe Life's Vagaries ii. i. 23 Ah my dear hubby, I wish you were as good a sportsman as your 'prentice Tony Dickins, ah he's the smart fellow. 1808 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 19 106 Leaving for him two smart purges of calomel and jalap. 1847 C. Brontë Jane Eyre I. iv. 45 Bessie Lee..was smart in all she did. 1899 F. T. Bullen Log of Sea-waif 342 We were mighty smart getting under way. 1907 F. Hume Silent House xxx. 273 As a rule, he is always smart in replying... I'm sure he will be over soon. 1987 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 15 Sept. 4 Probably the same beauty had caught the eye of a dozen others so you had to be smart off the mark. c. Chiefly Horse Racing (later also in coursing and greyhound racing). Of a horse or dog: fast, quick. ΚΠ 1760 G. Baretti Dict. Eng. & Ital. Lang. I Puledrino.., a little smart colt. 1823 New-Hampsh. Statesman 4 Aug. 1/2 The rogues..having a smart horse, which put to his utmost speed,..could not be easily passed. 1831 New Sporting Mag. Sept. 348/1 Nor, despite her winning the Drawing-room Stakes.., do I consider old Sadler's very smart mare Delight to stand much of a chance. 1862 Manch. Guardian 17 Mar. 4/5 Dirt Cheap..is a smart filly over short courses. 1892 H. Cox Coursing in H. Cox & G. Lascelles Coursing & Falconry (Badminton Libr. of Sports & Pastimes) 13 [He] had backed his nomination to win a good round sum, having an idea that a bitch called Wild Geranium (believed to be very smart) would fill it. 1900 W. S. Dixon In North Countree ii. 83 Captain Christie's speedy mare Miss Julia..used to be exceedingly smart over half-a-mile. 1987 Racing Monthly Apr. 60/2 If one of the horses turns out to be something really smart, you would..share in the vast profits. 2012 Advocate (Burnie, Austral.) (Nexis) 15 May 34 [They] will be chasing the spoils with their smart middle distance greyhound Wynburn Jet in Thursday night's..final. d. Chiefly North American colloquial (originally U.S.). Of a person: healthy, well. Now rare. ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > [adjective] > of health: good > healthy wholeeOE isoundOE i-sundfulc1000 ferec1175 soundc1175 fish-wholea1225 forthlyc1230 steadfasta1300 wella1300 safec1300 tidya1325 halec1330 quartc1330 well-faringc1330 well-tempered1340 well-disposeda1398 wealyc1400 furnished1473 mighty?a1475 quartful?c1475 good1527 wholesomea1533 crank1548 healthful1550 healthy1552 hearty1552 healthsome1563 well-affected?1563 disposed1575 as sound as a bell1576 firm1577 well-conditioned1580 sound1605 unvaletudinary1650 all right1652 valid1652 as sound as a (alsoany) roach1655 fair-like1663 hoddy1664 wanton1674 stout?1697 trig1704 well-hained1722 sprack1747 caller1754 sane1755 finely1763 bobbish1780 cleverly1784 right1787 smart1788 fine1791 eucratic1795 nobbling1825 as right as a trivet1835 first rate1841 in fine, good, high, etc., feather1844 gay1855 sprackish1882 game ball1905 abled1946 well-toned1952 a hundred per cent1960 oke1960 1788 J. May Jrnl. 31 Aug. (1873) (modernized text) 116 Didn't feel smart enough to go to meeting. 1832 J. J. Strang Diary 23 Aug. in M. M. Quaife Kingdom of St. James (1930) 205 This commenced the sickest day I ever suffered since my remembrance but now (evening) I am again smart for a sick person. 1839 G. C. Lewis Gloss. Words Herefordshire 95 Smart.., in good health. 1884 J. Gay Canada's Poet 94 Young men rise smart and healthy, rosy cheeks so Clear and bright, see those cheeks again to-morrow Cut down like grass a withered sight. 1956 ‘B. Holiday’ & W. Dufty Lady sings Blues i. 10 By the time she worked her way out of hock in the hospital and took me home to her folks, I was so big and smart I could sit up in a carriage. 9. Forward, impudent; cheeky, pert. Now frequently in to be (also get) smart (with another) (colloquial).In quot. c1400 probably: glib. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > pride > impudence > [adjective] thristec897 bolda1000 keen1297 apert1330 smartc1400 malaperta1425 overbolda1425 affronted1485 saucy1511 impertinata1525 over-familiar1529 pert1535 cocket1537 cockapert1556 contumelious1561 impudent1563 brass-bold1582 pertlike1582 paughtya1586 audacious1586 copped1597 effronted1598 petulant1598 dortya1605 rufty-tufty1606 facy1607 snappish1608 bold-faceda1616 over-pert1621 impertinent1631 procacious1660 insolent1678 calleting1691 effrontuousa1734 imperent1771 free1775 sassy1799 pawky1809 iron-sideda1825 gilpie1835 cheeky1838 fresh1843 snouty1858 nebby1873 gay1889 nebsy1894 nervy1896 brass neck1925 facety1928 facey1929 brass-necked1935 chutzpadik1959 the mind > emotion > pride > impudence > be or become impudent [verb (intransitive)] to bear oneself stout1338 to have the (also a) neck (to)c1395 perk1529 pert1637 to brazen it out1712 to be (also get) smart1736 to push (also show) a face1765 to cheek it1851 whipper-snap1908 c1400 (?a1300) Kyng Alisaunder (Laud) (1952) l. 4153 Darrie was wel sore anoyede..And seide: ‘Of tale þou art smart!’ c1449 R. Pecock Repressor (1860) 5 In this trowing and holding thei ben so kete and so smert and so wantoun. ?1567 M. Parker Whole Psalter cxlix. 422 To be a rod: to chastise smart, straunge peoples froward hart. 1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 144 The curst, sharp, smart,..implacable and wanton-rowling-eyed Women. 1736 S. Wesley Poems 392 Moll thought she safely might be smart, With Priviledge of a Sweet-heart. 1765 G. Keate Temple-student 13 Ask for my Letters..Or, if I have already had 'em, Lounge at the Bar, be smart with Madam. 1824 Examiner 756/1 Never being smart, ironical, or what we will venture to call imputative. 1877 Louisiana in 1876 (44th U.S. Congr. 2nd Sess. Senate Rep. No. 701) II. 1583 I don't want none of your damn smart tongue. 1933 E. O'Neill Ah, Wilderness! ii. 60 Tommy..Uncle Sid's soused again. Mrs. Miller..You be quiet! Did I ever! You're getting too smart! 1956 ‘B. Holiday’ & W. Dufty Lady sings Blues i. 12 This time Cousin Ida beat me for being smart with her. 1983 N.Y. Times 21 Dec. a26/2 My kids started making smart remarks about how old-fashioned tee-shirts look. 1998 T. McHale Casualty (BBC TV post-production script) (O.E.D. Archive) 13th Ser. Episode 1. 50 Don't get smart with me. 10. a. Clever, intelligent, knowledgeable; capable, adept; quick at learning, responding intelligently to a situation, etc.; astute, shrewd; (of an action) characterized by cleverness or astuteness.Also as the second element in compounds, in the sense ‘clever in respect of’, ‘wise to’, as street-smart adj. at street n. and adj. Compounds 4.Now the most common sense in North American usage. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > ability > [adjective] > clever or capable smart1571 the mind > mental capacity > understanding > wisdom, sagacity > worldly wisdom > [adjective] world-wiseOE worldly-wisec1400 smart1571 shrewd1589 hard1655 sharp1697 auld-farrant1702 up to snuff1810 canny1816 savvy1826 worldly1829 lairy1846 facultized1872 sophisticated1895 hep1899 hip1904 streetwise1949 ready1967 kewl1990 1571 R. Sempill in J. Cranstoun Satirical Poems Reformation (1891) I. 195 Smart in my schuitting & singular in my Science. 1628 R. Le Grys tr. J. Barclay Argenis ii. 81 For he, a smart young man, and of great iudgement,..held vp the Kings side. 1658 tr. J. Ussher Ann. World 525 Being..loath to engage in fight with Fimbria, who was both a smart fellow, and a Conqueror to boot. 1709 R. Steele Tatler No. 26. ⁋5 [He] is what we most justly call, a Smart Fellow. 1786 M. Cutler Let. 20 Apr. in W. P. Cutler & J. P. Cutler Life, Jrnls. & Corr. M. Cutler (1888) I. 189 Those of my subscribers who are smart, able men, I have told shall have an equal chance with other proprietors. 1844 Mrs. Houstoun Texas & Gulf of Mexico II. 215 The Opossum is held in great respect by the Yankees, as a particularly ‘smart’ animal. 1850 A. Jones Memorandum 4 June in Memoranda & Official Corr. Republic of Texas 89 He has succeeded for fourteen years in humbugging an intelligent people into the belief that it was a ‘smart’ move on his part. 1879 A. Trollope John Caldigate II. vii. 90 He had been singularly lucky as to the circumstances and time of the sale. But there had been nothing ‘smart’ about it. 1888 J. Bryce Amer. Commonw. II. lxv. 484 In America every smart man is expected to be able to do anything he turns his hand to. 1908 L. M. Montgomery Anne of Green Gables xvii. 192 Mr. Phillips says I'm the worst dunce he ever saw at it. And Gil—I mean some of the others are so smart at it. 1943 H. L. Mencken Diary 13 Mar. (1989) 242 Cairns is a smart fellow and writes very well, but he wastes too much time on philosophy. 1988 P. Wayburn Adventuring in Alaska (rev. ed.) i. 48 It is not smart to try stream crossings wearing a long rain poncho or cagoule. 1991 H. Kureishi London kills Me 58 You're smart, girlie. What you doing with these bad boys? You're above them. 2002 BusinessWeek 4 Nov. 122/3 For all but the largest producers, the smartest choice may be to go ‘fabless’, avoiding the manufacturing rat race. b. Of a device or machine: appearing to have a degree of intelligence; able to react or respond to differing requirements, varying situations, or past events; programmed so as to be capable of some independent action; (in later use) spec. containing a microprocessor (opposed to dumb adj. 7c). Of a material, medicine, etc.: designed to act or respond to conditions in a more sophisticated way than is typical.See also Compounds 2b. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > [adjective] > displaying intelligence > of device smart1948 society > occupation and work > equipment > machine > types of machine generally > [adjective] > automatic > semi-automatic self-starting1850 semi-automatic1903 smart1972 1948 Sci. News Let. 21 Aug. 123/2 The earlier eniac was pretty smart but the univac is even smarter. 1972 Proc. IEEE 60 1282/1 The term ‘smart terminal’ is used here to identify an interactive terminal in which part of the processing is accomplished by a small computer or processor contained within the terminal itself. 1979 Sci. News 116 232/1 Targeting drugs to the site of their desired action is a continuing challenge to medicinal chemists... ‘Smart’ drugs may be in the offing for a variety of diseases. 1986 W. L. Schweber Integrated Circuits for Computers i. 9 The intelligent controller (often called ‘smart’ in the electronics field) uses a program rather than a hard-wire approach. 1990 N.Y. Times 25 Jan. c6/6 The ultimate manifestation of the ‘smart’ house..was the Smart Seat, a microprocessor-controlled bidet attachment for the toilet. 1996 Times 22 Apr. 11/8 Technical matters discussed include ‘smart mines’, which deactivate or self-destruct 30 days after they have been laid. 1998 New Jersey Monthly Jan. 56/2 We've added smart lamps with data ports to enable business travelers to link up to their computer modems. 2011 Tampa (Florida) Tribune (Nexis) 22 May 4 Peak-hour traffic can still overwhelm smart signals, according to the Florida Department of Transportation. c. Designating a (real or hypothetical) substance, esp. a drug, that (supposedly) increases intelligence or enhances other aspects of cognitive performance; (of a foodstuff or drink) containing such a substance; (of a bar) providing such items.Recorded earliest (in figurative use) in smart pill n. 1. ΚΠ 1954 San Mateo (Calif.) Times 24 July 12/5 Some one of these days Don Levinson is going to get hold of a handful of smart pills and forget about road racing. 1966 Sci. News 89 187/1 Many biologists believe this would explain the mysterious memory-enhancing qualities of RNA and the new ‘smart’ drug. 1991 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 30 Dec. 4/2 ‘Smart drinks’..are popping up at trendy nightclubs and private parties. 1992 Independent 6 Aug. 6/5 In California, ‘smart bars’ have opened where people can drop in and consume cocktails containing ‘cognition enhancers’. 2009 P. Holford Optimum Nutrition for Mind xxxviii. 212 My recommendation under any circumstance is to start with no more than one smart drug or hormone, at the lower dose..and build up gradually. d. Of a building: incorporating technology that allows a high degree of central computer control of services such as heating, lighting, and communications, typically with the aim of ensuring the most efficient use of resources. Cf. intelligent building n. at intelligent n., adj., and adv. Compounds 2. ΘΚΠ society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > types of building generally > [adjective] > other specific standing1624 walk-up1928 LU1969 unlisted1970 mature1975 smart1984 1984 Christian Sci. Monitor 28 Feb. 6/4 One Financial Place will be the smartest of his smart buildings, he says. It will offer an information network as well as a message service. 1993 Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gaz. 25 Apr. 3 e I have heard that one of the new smart home total automation systems can cut my utility bills by 25 percent. 2001 Smarthouse Feb. 10/2 The company's conversion of the existing old office building into 120 smart-apartments took the silver award in the ‘Best Apartment’ category. 2012 Daily Tel. (Austral.) (Nexis) 18 May 24 The Taylor family were chosen form more than 100 applicants to live rent-free in the smart home and test it out. 11. a. Of a remark, saying, etc.: clever, pointed; witty and apposite.See also smart talk n. (a) at Compounds 2a. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > wit, wittiness > [adjective] > of speech or writing smart1585 witty1598 sharp1700 zinging1972 1585 T. Bilson True Difference Christian Subiection iv. 697 If all the Preachers in England would haue laide their heades together..they could not haue done it in quicker and smarter speech. 1656 Earl of Monmouth tr. T. Boccalini Ragguagli di Parnasso i. lv. 110 We find some Histories..abounding in smart politick precepts. 1673 S'too him Bayes 19 I acknowledge this Expression to be nice and smart. 1739 tr. C. Rollin Anc. Hist. (ed. 2) VI. 105 Cicero, who ascribes this saying to Timæus, declares it a very smart one. 1752 S. Johnson Rambler No. 194. ⁋11 He mistakes the question, that he may return a smart answer. 1824 T. F. Dibdin Libr. Compan. 539 A short, but smart notice of him. 1879 L. Stephen Hours in Libr. 3rd Ser. ii. 65 Mandeville..passes off his smart sayings upon the public as serious. 1901 Munsey's Mag. Oct. 129/2 While it lacks the abundance of ‘smart’ speeches that lent such sparkle to Captain Marshall's other military comedy, ‘His Excellency the Governor’, it contains more of real human nature. 1937 Life 12 Apr. 6/1 (advt.) This gay gaballero is, by his own admission, pretty hot stuff with smart quips and witty sayings. 1964 Jet 7 May 17 A few had smart quips for the demonstrators. 1997 J. Daugharty Earl in Yellow Shirt (1998) 47 Always picking his teeth with a broomstraw, popping my bra, yanking my hair, trying to come up with some smart saying. He's dumb! b. Of a person: clever in talk or argument; capable of making witty remarks, quick-witted; adept at repartee.See also smart talker n. at Compounds 2a. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > sharpness, shrewdness, insight > [adjective] sharpc888 yepec1000 spacka1200 yare-witelc1275 fellc1300 yap13.. seeinga1382 far-castinga1387 sightya1400 perceivinga1425 snellc1425 politic?a1439 quickc1449 pregnant?a1475 pert1484 quick-wittedc1525 apt1535 intelligentc1540 queemc1540 ready-witted1576 political1577 of (a) great, deep, etc., reach1579 conceited1583 perspicuous1584 sharp-witteda1586 shrewd1589 inseeing1590 conceived1596 acute1598 pregnate1598 agile1599 nimble-headed1601 insighted1602 nimble1604 nimble-witted1604 penetrant1605 penetrating1606 spraga1616 acuminous1619 discoursing1625 smart1639 penetrativea1641 sagacious1650 nasute1653 acuminate1654 blunt-sharpa1661 long-headed1665 smoky1688 rapid1693 keen1704 gash1706 snack1710 cute1731 mobile1778 wide awake1785 acuminated1786 quick-minded1789 kicky1790 snap1790 downy1803 snacky1806 unbaffleable1827 varmint1829 needle-sharp1836 nimble-brained1836 incisivea1850 spry1849 fast1850 snappy1871 hard-boiled1884 on the spot1903 the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > wit, wittiness > [adjective] quainta1250 conceitive1579 conceited1583 conceity1589 conceitful1594 wittya1616 sharply-conceived1630 smart1639 mercurial1647 spiritual1701 wittified1742 scintillant1764 witful1765 1639 P. Massinger Unnaturall Combat iv. ii. sig. I2^v A smart queane. 1695 J. Edwards Disc. conc. Old & New-Test. III. xii. 514 The younger Vossius is a smart Advocate for the Septuagint. 1727 A. Pope et al. Περι Βαθους: Art of Sinking 65 in J. Swift et al. Misc.: Last Vol. It is by Virtue of this Stile that..Tully is as short and smart as Seneca. 1753 J. Collier Ess. Art of Tormenting Rules 199 This, I have been told, is what they call being smart in company. 1779 F. Burney Evelina (ed. 2) II. xix. 167 You're so smart, there is no speaking to you. 1829 London Lit. Gaz. 26 Dec. 847/1 They are smart in their remarks, and very excellent mimics and imitators. 1895 19th Cent. Aug. 324 He is decidedly smarter as an all-round talker. 1942 Billboard 17 Jan. 24/3 The girl is a smart Gracie Allen-type with a good line of chatter and an engaging personality. 2004 Diva Mar. 60/3 The smart and sassy ensemble exchange quick-witted repartee which reveals..many lesbian clichés and touches of nostalgia for the 70s. 12. Alert, energetic; spec. (chiefly Military) having a brisk and orderly bearing, esp. combined with a neatness of appearance (cf. sense 13c). Also in extended use. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > manner of action > vigour or energy > [adjective] > brisk or active sprindeOE whata1000 braga1350 prestc1390 yarea1400 stirringc1400 startingc1440 actious1441 actuala1470 activea1522 queemc1540 skeetc1540 lively1567 alive-like1582 pragmatical1590 spruce1590 agilious1599 brisk1599 sprightly?c1599 brisky1600 alives-like1601 alacrious1602 smart1602 eyebright1603 whisking1611 deedy1615 vibrant1616 sprunt1631 perking1653 alert1654 exilient1654 alacrative1657 eveillé1676 budge1691 jaunty1705 spry1746 sprack1747 alive1748 high-geared1795 rash1805 spicy1828 live1830 deedful1834 yary1855 sprucy1858 alacritous1859 sprackish1882 brash1884 up-and-coming1889 up and doing1901 loose1907 bright-eyed and bushy-tailed1936 buzzy1978 the world > movement > rate of motion > swiftness > swift movement in specific manner > [adjective] > moving swiftly and briskly lightOE quiverOE wight1390 yerna1400 sharpc1440 fisking?1523 skeetc1540 nimblea1547 flit1590 brisk1599 brisky1600 smart1602 whipping1602 running1662 nimble-movinga1676 snack1710 brushing1792 adance1828 slippy1847 nippy1849 smartish1921 hoppy1934 the mind > attention and judgement > beauty > pleasing appearance > [adjective] > neat or trim > and brisk smart1602 1602 J. Marston Hist. Antonio & Mellida iii. sig. E4 I..Strook a faire wench, with a smart speaking eye. 1683 A. Wood Life 9 Sept. The smart lads of the city march'd downe the streets with cudgells in their hands. 1777 Selector 2 Jan. 310 Garrick was too smart and dapper in it [sc. the part of Romeo], and always looked as if nothing ailed him. 1785 W. Cowper Task iv. 648 He hates the field,..And sighs for the smart comrades he has left. 1827 O. W. Roberts Narr. Voy. Central Amer. 80 Sufficient [room] for a smart vessel to work in or out. 1884 Pall Mall Gaz. 29 Aug. 1/2 The Egyptian soldier is..smart, clean, and cheap. 1920 Infantry Jrnl. (U.S.) Apr. 914/2 If he is a smart soldier, he will take pride in the way he salutes. 1994 J. Biggins Tomorrow the World (2007) 263 The Americans were very smart about their work: even swabbed the decks down for us afterwards. 13. a. Of an item of clothing, etc.: attractively neat and stylish; relatively formal. ΘΚΠ the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > [adjective] > fine, elegant, or smart quaintc1330 nice1395 merryc1400 featc1430 elegant?c1500 mannerly1523 fine1526 neat1566 trim1675 smart1704 dressy1785 natty1794 good1809 dossy1889 dicty1932 whip-smart1937 zooty1943 sharp1944 preppy1963 1704 R. Steele Lying Lover iv. 40 What shall I do for Powder for this smart Bob. 1712 W. Darrell Gentleman Instructed: 3rd Pt. i. 13 Nothing would please his Worship, but Smart Shooes, Smart Hats, and Smart Cravats... The truth is he had been bred up with the Groom, and transplanted the Stable dialect into the Dressing-Room. 1743 H. Fielding Jonathan Wild i. x, in Misc. III. 59 A blue Plush coat,..a smart Sleeve, and a cape. 1823 W. Scott Quentin Durward I. ii. 20 The smart blue bonnet..was already recognized as the Scottish head-gear. 1859 W. Collins Queen of Hearts I. 69 The man..had a collection of smart little boots and shoes. 1900 Daily News 8 Sept. 6/3 Two-thirds of the smart dresses are now made with an Eton or bolero over a more or less ornamental front. 1960 A. Waugh Foxglove Saga xii. 223 Martin had donned the Pig's Full Dress Mess Kit..and in its smart red monkey-jacket, narrow blue overalls with a broad red stripe..he really did look most striking. 1989 Times 27 May 35/1 (advt.) Good food, fine wine & live entertainment... Smart dress only. 2006 Guardian 17 Apr. i. 26/3 They are well-dressed young persons with clean linen, smart neckties, gorgeous ‘belchers’ round their throats, and brightly polished boots. b. Of a building, vehicle, etc.: neat and pleasing in appearance; clean, bright, well presented or maintained. ΚΠ 1762 S. Foote Orators i. i. 21 His eyes are constantly caught by the appearance of a smart house, prefac'd with white rails and prologu'd by a red door. 1823 Count de Soligny Lett. Eng. II. lxviii. 281 Looking out on the smart shops, the nicely paved streets. 1851 N. Hawthorne Twice-told Tales I. xvi. 252 There, in a smart chaise, a dashingly dressed gentleman and lady. 1894 J. D. Astley Fifty Years of my Life I. 94 We put up at a very smart hotel. 1915 Munsey's Mag. Dec. 435/1 Your eyes caress this smart machine,..I know you love my limousine. 1970 Illustr. London News 18 July 13/4 The smart Georgian building. 2006 Daily Mail (Nexis) 18 Nov. 26 Reg drives a smart new van. c. Of a person: neatly or (relatively) formally dressed; appearing neat and stylish; tidy, well turned-out. ΘΚΠ the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > wearing clothing > [adjective] > smartly or elegantly dressed well-arrayeda1387 well-clada1400 well-apparelledc1450 well-dressed1484 fine1526 point-devicea1529 feat1560 tiffety-taffety1595 well-gowned1632 well-rigged1741 neat-dressed1757 smartc1778 well-turned-out1825 well-tailored1828 upholstered1892 whip-smart1937 sharp1944 pressed1963 the mind > attention and judgement > beauty > pleasing appearance > [adjective] > neat or trim netc1330 pertc1330 cleanc1386 nicec1400 picked?c1425 dapperc1440 feata1471 gim1513 trig1513 well-trimmedc1513 trick1533 smirk1534 tricksy1552 neat1559 netty1573 deft1579 primpc1590 briska1593 smug1598 spruce1598 sprink1602 terse1602 compt1632 nitle1673 sprig1675 snod1691 tight1697 smugged1706 snug1714 pensy1718 fitty1746 jemmy1751 sprucy1774 smartc1778 natty1785 spry1806 perjink1808 soigné1821 nutty1823 toiletted1823 taut1829 spick and span1846 spicy1846 groomed1853 spiffy1853 well-groomed1865 bandboxy1870 perjinkity1880 spick-span1888 bandbox1916 tiddly1925 whip-smart1937 spit and polish1950 spit-and-polished1977 c1778 C. Burney in F. Burney Early Diary (1907) II. 287 Dr. Johnson was immensely smart, for him,—for he had not only a very decent tidy suit of cloathes on, but his hands, face, and linnen were clean. 1789 H. L. Piozzi Observ. Journey France II. 204 We observed..how the town was become neater, the ordinary people smarter. 1806 J. Beresford Miseries Human Life I. ii. 34 Walking out to dinner, clean and smart. 1888 Poor Nellie 127 Adela had noticed how smart he looked. 1933 A. M. Lindbergh Let. 29 Sept. in Locked Rooms & Open Doors (1974) 120 The grand old-style hotel. All employees well dressed, lipsticked women on each floor, smart maids. 1999 M. T. Myambo in Y. Vera Opening Spaces 16 I was looking very smart in a flowing lemon-yellow dress with matching shoes. 2005 Daily Tel. 26 Sept. 18/7 He never managed to be smart, his waistcoat..generally unbuttoned and showing his braces, his sleeves rolled up. d. Of a fabric, design, etc.: attractive, neat, stylish; richly or daintily decorative. ΘΚΠ the mind > attention and judgement > attractiveness > [adjective] gracious1340 glorious skinnyc1400 drawing1435 gracefulc1449 attrayant1477 well-favoured1539 alluring1567 graceda1586 attracting1589 attractive1592 winning1596 appealing1598 taking1603 allicient1613 enchantinga1616 motive1615 temptinga1616 allurant1631 catchinga1640 gaining1642 canny1643 charmful1656 charming1664 mignon1671 disarminga1718 prepossessing1737 seducing1749 seductive176. eye-catching1770 sweet1779 catchy1784 attaching1785 engaging1816 cute1834 cunning1843 taky1854 cynosural1855 smart1860 fetching1880 seductious1883 fruity1900 barry1923 hot stuff1928 swoony1934 dishy1961 dolly1964 jiggy1996 aegyo2007 the mind > attention and judgement > fashionableness > [adjective] > smart gallantc1420 galliard1513 fine1526 trickly1580 pink1598 genteel1601 sparkful1605 sparkish1657 jaunty1662 spankinga1666 shanty1685 trig1725 smartish1738 distinguished1748 nobby1788 dashing1801 vaudy1805 swell1810 distingué1813 dashy1822 nutty1823 chic1832 slicked1836 flash1838 rakish1840 spiffy1853 smart1860 sassy1861 classy1870 spiffing1872 toffish1873 tony1877 swish1879 hep1899 toffy1901 hip1904 toppy1905 in1906 floozy1911 swank1913 jazz1917 ritzy1919 smooth1920 snappy1925 snazzy1931 groovy1937 what ho1937 gussy1940 criss1954 high camp1954 sprauncy1957 James Bondish1966 James Bond1967 schmick1972 designer1978 atas1993 as fine as fivepence- 1860 Harper's Mag Feb. 343/1 First, after the clergyman and the bearers, come Mrs. Spooner and Hannah Maria, the former in a smart black silk, the latter in yellow barége. 1888 Poor Nellie 8 I will make a cover for them,..a smart one of blue velvet. 1937 Amer. Home Apr. 101/1 (advt.) In your bedroom, smart new cushions, bedspreads—even deep-pile rugs. 1952 Van Nuys (California) News 21 Feb. 1 b (advt.) Jumbo Size Pilsner Glass. Beautifully etched in smart floral patterns. 1996 M&S Mag. Winter 69/3 Christmas chocolates this year come in smart gold paper with a red ribbon, wrapped and hand-tied in Belgium. 2004 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 1 Feb. ix. 3/3 A dog collar in smart dark red leather comes in three sizes and costs $52 (bichon frisé not included). 14. Fashionable, elegant, sophisticated; belonging to or associated with fashionable or high society. See also smart set n. at Compounds 2a. ΘΚΠ society > society and the community > social class > the common people > specific classes of common people > fashionable society > [adjective] townishc1450 of mode1676 fashionable1712 smart1719 high-lifed1733 social1741 high-lived1757 West Endish1855 Fifth Avenue1858 mundane1904 societified1912 Park Avenue1923 1719 Free-thinker No. 158. 2 A Cluster of smart Men, in tawdry Dresses, with little Rapiers. 1793 A. Seward Lett. (1811) III. 275 This beach..covered with smart people, and with equipages. 1811 J. Austen Sense & Sensibility I. xix. 239 I always preferred the church as I still do. But that was not smart enough for my family. They recommended the army. That was a great deal too smart for me. View more context for this quotation 1845 M. J. Higgins in New Monthly Mag. Aug. 574 They..got my wife invited to several very smart balls. 1881 W. H. Mallock Romance 19th Cent. II. 254 Many smart people were shy of Mrs. Crane. 1899 Echo 1 Nov. 1/4 Artlessly protestant against the vicious vanities of smart society. 1926 J. Galsworthy Silver Spoon ii. viii. 183 ‘Don't know why he keeps on an amateur like that.’ ‘Box office, dear boy; she brings the smart people.’ 1953 A. Hosain Phoenix Fled 150 With his charm and his means he soon became a favourite of the smart social set. 1969 V. Bartlett Past of Pastimes x. 134 Modern ski-ing—the kind of ski-ing which in winter..links smart hotels to remote peaks by ski-lifts and téléfériques. 2008 Daily Tel. 25 Aug. 20/2 On returning to England, the scamsters would go to the smart shops in Manchester and buy items identical in design, size and colour to those they had brought back from China. III. Substantial, considerable. 15. colloquial and regional (now chiefly North American). Considerable in number, amount, extent, etc.; substantial, large. See also right smart adj.smart chance: see chance n. 4b. [The semantic development of this sense is unclear, and may owe something to several of the earlier senses.] ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > quantity > greatness of quantity, amount, or degree > [adjective] > considerable in amount or degree goodeOE fairOE goodlyc1275 largea1375 no littlea1413 substantial1413 unleast?1440 prettya1475 reasonablea1500 substantious1545 substantive1575 sensible1581 pretty and ——1596 goody1597 greatish1611 considerable1651 sonsy1721 respectable1736 smart1750 quite a little ——1763 gey1796 smartish1799 canny1805 serious1810 right smart1825 dunnamuch1831 snug1833 tidy1839 bonnyish1855 largish1872 a nice little ——1891 significant1898 healthy1901 beaucoup1917 the world > relative properties > number > plurality > great number, numerousness > [adjective] > abundant, numerous so manyc888 thickc893 muchc1225 rifec1275 stourc1275 unridec1300 copiousc1384 plentya1400 rivedc1400 numerable?a1425 numerous?a1475 many a several1543 rank1545 numberous1566 huge1570 multuous1586 multeous1589 numberful1594 numberable1596 numbery1606 numbersomea1617 multitudinousa1631 sand-like1630 voluminous1650 several1712 smart1750 powerful1800 multitudinarious1810 multitudinary1838 1750 C. Smith Antient & Present State Cork I. ii. iv. 289 The Kingsale fishermen also come hither and build huts, where they cure their fish, and for this they pay a smart rent. a1777 S. Foote Devil upon Two Sticks (1778) ii. 44 [Scotsman] Ah! for the mater of that, it is a praty smart little income. 1819 D. Thomas Trav. Western Country 230 A considerable number is expressed by a smart chance; and our hostess at Madison said, there was ‘a smart chance of yankees’ in that village. 1839 G. C. Lewis Gloss. Words Herefordshire 95 ‘A smart few’ means a considerable number. 1855 W. M. Thackeray Newcomes II. xlii. 374 Madame..left a smart legacy to the..children. 1882 I. Mayo Mrs. Raven's Temptation I. 276 Hope you will get a smart fee with it. 1901 E. G. Hayden Trav. round Village ii. 38 The neighbours..noticed that he ‘broke a smart deal’ that autumn. 1991 R. A. Couto Ain't gonna let Nobody turn me Round i. i. 32 Spent a smart amount of our personal cash money because we didn't know how to go at it. Phrases P1. colloquial (chiefly British). to look smart: to move or act quickly or energetically. Frequently in imperative: ‘be quick’, ‘hurry up’. Cf. to look lively at lively adj. and n. Phrases, to look sharp at sharp adv. Phrases.In earlier use frequently in nautical contexts. ΚΠ 1823 Manch. Iris 13 Dec. 401/3 Look smart, and I'll turn the spit till somebody comes. 1862 F. Moore Rebellion Rec. IV. 62/1 His mates and crew were restricted to one bag of clothing each, and he was advised to ‘look smart’ about it. 1893 G. A. Henty In Greek Waters xv. 257 All hands get off sail! Look smart, my lads; there is a..squall coming. 1917 A. G. Empey Over Top 311 ‘Toots Sweet’. Tommy's French for ‘hurry up’, ‘look smart’. 1974 New Scientist 7 Mar. 629/1 Some..put out their hands to touch him.., but they have to look smart about it, or he is gone before they can pay tribute. 2010 Daily Record (Glasgow) (Nexis) 5 Aug. (Sport section) 70 Zaluska had to look smart to stop Cesar drilling home a quick-fire second goal. P2. a. colloquial (chiefly U.S.). smart as a whip: very sharp or lively; spec. extremely intelligent or clever. Cf. whip-smart adj. ΚΠ 1821 Supporter & Scioto (Ohio) Gaz. 7 Nov. 1/2 His daughters are as lively and as smart as a whip. 1860 Republican Jrnl. (Columbus, Wisconsin) 9 Feb. 1/7 Mr. A—— was a prompt and successful business man, ‘smart as a whip’, as the Yankees say. 1909 Out West June 556 Miss June and I grew up together, went to school together; she's about five years the younger, but smart as a whip. 1958 J. L. Herlihy & W. Noble Blue Denim (1986) i. 18 But don't get it into your head that kid's not as smart as a whip... Some day he's going to be a big executive for the Detroit Edison company. 1988 Chicago Tribune 28 Oct. 23 Paul Pryde is the same man I have known all these years: smart as a whip, an astute economic and political analyst, with a keen eye for opportunity disguised as disadvantage. 2010 Good Housek. (Nexis) 1 Apr. 66 My little dog Karoo is smart as a whip. She knows where the craft-services [food] tables are. b. smart as a steel trap: see steel trap n. (b) at steel n.¹ Compounds 8. Compounds C1. smart-looking adj. ΚΠ 1760 G. Baretti Dict. Eng. & Ital. Lang. I. Servitorino, a smart-looking little man-servant; a foot-boy. 1865 Once a Week 15 July 108/2 Grunter was talking to..the old lady—a clean, smart-looking widow, who kept a preparatory school next door. 1955 ‘A. Aldrich’ We walk Alone i. 13 The pair of smart-looking, urbane women executives at a table in a corner getting high on Rob Roys. 2002 Best of Brit. Nov. 37/1 A smart-looking police officer with shiny boots and white over-sleeves waits for the approaching van. smart-suited adj. ΚΠ 1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. x. [Wandering Rocks] 243 James's wax smartsuited freshcheeked models. 1994 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 23 June 18/1 The smart suited head of the Polish Scientific Publishers. 2002 Mirror 27 Mar. 17/4 Stay at any LA hotel and you'll see the divide before your eyes. The smart-suited ladies behind reception desks are white, the ladies who clean your rooms are not. smart-tongued adj. ΚΠ 1602 B. Jonson Poetaster iv. v. sig. H2^v A good smart-tongu'd Goddesse. View more context for this quotation 1868 Quiver 24 Oct. 34/2 That quick witted, smart tongued, bright eyed little person. 1902 Athenæum 20 Sept. 370/3 She is self-willed, perverse, smart-tongued and full of resource. 1998 Los Angeles Mag. Aug. 42 Zeta-Jones and Hopkins are together again, he as the master bandit and she as his daughter, a sword-wielding, smart-tongued stunner. smart-witted adj. ΚΠ 1838 H. W. Torrens tr. Bk. Thousand Nights & One Night I. 78 Now you be three, and you require a fourth, and here am I, a man, sensible, a prudent fellow, smart-witted, and one that can keep counsel. 1897 Daily News 28 Sept. 2/1 That friendly, but smart-witted Power. 1948 C. E. Robinson Hellas ix, 149 Among the characters appear the gay young spendthrift and his fast young mistress, the unscrupulous go-between, the smart-witted slave and the stingy tyrannical father. 2011 J. C. Naidoo Celebrating Cuentos iii. 50 Children who read these stories encounter indigenous cultures and peoples along with smart-witted Mexican children who provide for their families. C2. a. smart apple n. U.S. colloquial (a) a person who is or wishes to appear clever or knowledgeable, but is regarded as smug and annoying; = smart alec n.; (b) a shrewd or intelligent person; a smart cookie (cf. cookie n. 2a). ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > sharpness, shrewdness, insight > would-be clever person > [noun] clever-boots1847 smarty1847 smart alec1864 clever-clogs1866 clever-sides1886 clever Dick1895 wise guy1896 wisenheimer1904 smarty-pants1935 quiz kid1940 smart apple1940 smarty-boots1950 smart-ass1958 slick1959 clever-sticks1964 smart-arse1965 wise-ass1971 1940 Big Spring (Texas) Daily Herald 19 Sept. 9/4 His confession surprised practically nobody in the literary world except, possibly, the smart apple who reviewed the book. 1946 T. Bell There comes Time ix. 57 Here's a smart apple like you working your ass off for a lousy forty bucks a week. 1980 L. Sanders Caper (1987) 168 I realized what a smart apple this Black Jack Donohue was... He was shrewd enough to know that I wouldn't endanger Dick. 2004 Houston Chron. (Nexis) 2 May (Sports section) 1 Jones showed all the doubters and smart apples that a champion doesn't need to be a majestic figure or born of blue blood. smart growth n. U.S. Town Planning planned growth of new buildings in accordance with social and environmental considerations or priorities; spec. development which aims to enhance the quality of life of inhabitants by providing improved infrastructure, facilities, etc., esp. in a compact urban area, and seeks to be environmentally sustainable; frequently attributive. ΚΠ 1990 PR Newswire (Nexis) 9 Nov. Citizens' groups collected more than 1,000 signatures on petitions calling for a public referendum on a ‘smart-growth’ initiative which would limit new housing to three percent per year. 1991 Frederick (Maryland) Post 8 Mar. a7/1 I went to this..neighbourhood, and took along some legislators, because it was a good example of ‘smart growth’. 2000 A. Cuomo State of Cities, 2000 74 One approach to smart growth is to achieve higher densities by clustering houses around a transportation hub. 2004 Herald-Times (Bloomington, Indiana) 9 June a8/2 A..smart growth project that promises to make Bloomingtonians proud and serve as an excellent model for future infill projects in the city. smart mouth n. U.S. slang (chiefly depreciative) a person who makes witty comments at another's expense; an impudent or cheeky person. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > pride > impudence > [noun] > impudent person > in speech vauntparlera1529 saucebox1588 cheeker1840 saucepot1890 smart mouth1966 jay- the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > wit, wittiness > wit with words > [noun] > one who indulges in quipper1589 quipster1790 persifleur1829 cross-talker1907 smart mouth1966 1966 M. Terry Keep tightly Closed in Tulane Drama Rev. 10 197 Since when did you get to be such a smart mouth? 1968 Sun (Baltimore) 13 Oct. (Mag.) 19/1 I was a smart mouth, a troublemaker in school. 1985 O. S. Card Ender's Game v. 45 What are you, a smartmouth? 2001 N.Y. Mag. 19 Mar. 67/1 Bill Nunn plays his henpecked partner, ‘Pip’, and Diane Farr is the workplace smart-mouth. smart-mouth v. transitive to be cheeky or impudent to; to be witty at the expense of. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > pride > impudence > treat impudently [verb (transitive)] > speak impudently to sauce1822 to give (a person) sauce1823 sass1836 cheek1840 chin1871 lip1898 back-sass1917 smart-mouth1970 the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > wit, wittiness > wit with words > say as a quip [verb (transitive)] > in attack quirk1596 squib1631 smart-mouth1970 1970 M. Spillane Survival...Zero! i. 10 This time he didn't try smart-mouthing me. 1976 R. B. Parker Promised Land (1977) xii. 65 Don't smart-mouth me, man. You wising off at me? 2005 P. F. Hamilton Judas Unchained ix. 424 You want to smartmouth me again, or do you want to survive the next twenty four hours? smart-mouthed adj. characterized by impudence or (esp. barbed) wit. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > pride > impudence > [adjective] > impudent in speech or of speech bardish1641 brisk1665 flippant1677 sassy1799 slang1818 lippy1875 smart-mouthed1967 the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > wit, wittiness > wit with words > [adjective] snip-snap1673 quippish1817 quippy1859 quipsome1881 smart-mouthed1967 zinging1972 1967 Life 4 Aug. 8/4 The dialogue is smart-mouthed and the action is unpredictably explosive. 1978 J. Irving World according to Garp xii. 229 Some smart-mouthed motorist..will..ask.., ‘What are you in training for?’ 2008 S. Armitage Gig (2009) 199 I've come to think that aspirant poets could do a whole lot worse than listen to smart-mouthed entertainers and deadpan comics like Lehrer and Newhart. smart sanction n. Politics a sanction against a nation or state that targets specific persons (esp. members of the ruling elite) or particular imported (esp. military) goods, in order to minimize the adverse effects on the general civilian population; frequently in plural. ΚΠ 1995 Associated Press Worldstream (Nexis) 18 Jan. The United Nations ‘should not be seduced by “smart sanctions” which are partially and narrowly targeted’, said British Ambassador David Hannay. ‘They are notoriously hard to enforce and therefore unlikely to have the desired effect.’ 2002 Village Voice (N.Y.) 22 Jan. 35/1 They proposed..‘smart sanctions’, which would allow the Iraqi citizenry access to a far greater range of goods while clamping down more firmly on ‘dual use’ items with potential military applications. 2009 D. P. Forsythe Encycl. Human Rights I. 84/1 A smart sanction might freeze financial assets of varied types and might restrict or deny aviation and travel. smart set n. colloquial (sometimes depreciative, with connotations of decadence) the extremely fashionable portion of society; fashionable people considered as a group; also in extended use. ΘΚΠ society > society and the community > social class > the common people > specific classes of common people > fashionable society > [noun] higheOE high life?a1518 towna1616 world1618 grand monde1673 society1693 beau monde1712 fine world1740 monde1765 tonc1770 high society1782 fashion1807 all the world1808 society1840 smart set1851 swelldom1854 Fifth Avenue1858 fashionabledom1859 haut monde1864 the big cheesea1910 higlif1911 haute Bohème1925 café society1937 jet set1949 beautiful people1950 1851 C. Norton Stuart of Dunleath I. xiii. 215 He did not belong to the ‘smart set’ of London society; he had not cared to belong to it. 1885 E. W. Hamilton Diary 20 May (1972) II. 867 Dined at Brook House... This is a house at which one meets the ‘grand set’ as distinct from the ‘smart set’—two totally different sections of the best London Society. 1900 Smart Set Apr. 137 The Smart Set of London has for the last ten or fifteen years..been the chief influence of our English playwrights, plays and players. 1949 P. Hastings Cases in Court v. 265 Mrs Barney's family were well-known in Mayfair and both Mrs Barney and the dead man were notorious members of the so-called young ‘smart set’. 1974 P. Dickinson Poison Oracle ii. 66 Dinah [sc. an ape]..had indeed left the slums to join the evolutionary smart set, Man. 2004 Sunday Times Trav. Feb. 69/2 This is Green Spain—the Costa Verde—where Madrid's smart set comes to escape the furnace heat of the Castilian summer. smart talk n. (a) clever, witty, or persuasive talk, esp. of an insincere nature; (b) impertinent or rude remarks or replies; backchat. ΚΠ 1731 Z. Mudge Liberty 28 Where there is..any undue Motive, not all the smart Talk in the World for Liberty will go farther. 1826 London & Paris Observer 16 Apr. 248/1 I had some smart talk with a Mr. Hollins, constable..; in short, I made him as mad as a wasp. 1903 S. J. A. Fitz-Gerald Love-thirst of Elaine xii. 101 That idiotic love foolishness that..might sway Elaine if exercised by a man like Cates, with his light ways and smart talk. 1988 Washington Post (Nexis) 15 Apr. b1 Unflappable as a Borsch Belter fending off hecklers, he plays hard to get when the kids start with the smart talk and spitballs. 2001 S. L. Lanehart Sociocultural & Hist. Contexts of Afr. Amer. Eng. ii. 222 Smart talk..is reserved for all other communicants as a put-down, reflecting a combative style of language. 2012 Scotsman (Nexis) 10 May 6 A lavish costume drama full of the kind of theatrical smart talk..that makes audiences laugh. smart-talk v. transitive (a) to engage (a person) in clever, witty, or persuasive conversation, esp. of an insincere nature; (also) to make (one's way) by means of such talk; cf. smooth-talk v.; (b) to talk to or answer (a person) in an impertinent or rude way; cf. smart-mouth vb. ΚΠ 1930 Blytheville (Arkansas) Courier News 8 Nov. 8/7 On Broadway, they ‘smart talk’ them into thinking they are the most scintillatingly brilliant..creatures that the world ever produced. 1936 San Antonio (Texas) Express 12 Jan. (Comic section) Don't smart talk me! 1988 Mother Jones Apr. 26/1 [He] uses grim unemployment statistics to push the students who smart-talk him. 1994 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 27 Nov. 29/1 [He] smart-talked his way through life and love in New York City. 2002 T. Lott Rumours of Hurricane (2003) ii. 44 Don't you smart-talk me. We put a roof over your head. smart talker n. a person who engages in clever, witty, or persuasive talk, esp. of an insincere kind. ΚΠ 1823 Ld. Byron Don Juan: Canto XIII xcviii. 104 They must..never flinch When some smart talker puts them to the test, But seize the last word, which no doubt's the best. 1901 Outlook 22 June 453/2 He is a smart talker, full of plausible argument, and can make white appear black. 1961 Washington Post 20 June a13/1 The wise guy in many groups establishes himself as a glib and smart talker by just this sort of conversation. 2011 Sunday Independent (Ireland) (Nexis) 19 June The party's imperative is to acquire clever thinkers rather than smart talkers. smart-talking adj. given to or characterized by clever, witty, or persuasive talk, esp. of an insincere nature. ΚΠ 1822 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Oct. 452/1 A smart-talking, slim-bodied young Cockney, whose courage had..completely forsaken him. 1908 Graettinger (Iowa) Times 24 Dec. 5/3 A number..were hit by a smart talking advertising fakir..and now..can only regret that they did not spend their money with the local printer. 1978 Jet 30 Mar. 30/1 All the other Black actors on regular series portray pimps, prostitutes, butlers, unemployed people, cops or smart-talking kids. 2002 T. Gates Scenario 24 This film—bettered only perhaps by the later Night at the Opera—was one of the founders of American smart-talking comedy. b. (In sense 10b; see also smartphone n., smart pill n. 2.) smart antenna n. any of various antennae in which computer technology is used to improve performance; esp. a directional antenna in which the beam is automatically focused on the receiver. ΚΠ 1977 Microwaves May 46/1 ‘Smart’ antennas will be controlled by microprocessors in spatial scanning applications. 2002 InfoWorld 11 Nov. 28/3 Dozens of antenna elements..form a smart antenna that focuses the RF signal in a point-to-point architecture instead of broadcasting the signal. 2012 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 18 Apr. b1 The smart antenna would direct energy straight at the phones, and..current spectrum would be put to more efficient use. smart bomb n. a bomb that is guided to its target with a high degree of precision (cf. guided adj. b); frequently figurative. ΘΚΠ society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > explosive device > [adjective] > types of bomb incendiary1871 heavy1917 dirty1956 smart bomb1970 enhanced radiation1976 1970 Aviation Week & Space Technol. 13 July 55/3 Loran applications..from a simple, low-cost expendable 100 kc. Loran repeater to a complete Loran receiver in a ‘smart’, or guided, bomb are under investigation by USAF. 1986 T. Clancy Red Storm Rising (1988) xvii. 207 Half were F-111F Aardvarks, the other half ‘GR.1’ Tornados, their wings heavy with fuel tanks and smart bombs. 1996 Time (Special Issue) Fall 29/1 In gene therapy, most of the current ‘smart bombs’..are viruses. 1999 Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey) 19 Nov. 11/1 Chronic pain..may be controlled by a ‘smart bomb’ drug that brings relief without the dulling side effects of narcotics. 2003 Time Out N.Y. 15 May 66/4 The style of fighting that paintballers reenact..is becoming increasingly irrelevant in the age of smart bombs and Predator drones. smart box n. any of various compact, box-like electronic devices that need little or no human input. ΚΠ 1985 Flying Aug. 101/2 The TI 9200 is a smart box, so there is no need to enter north-south designations or leading or trailing zeros if the waypoint is in the northern hemisphere west of the prime meridian. 1990 Sphere July 35/2 The modern carilloneur, however, can ring the changes simply by keying in a few commands to one of Clock-O-Matic's smart boxes. 1994 New Scientist 8 Jan. 7/1 ‘Smart boxes’, which route calls by the cheapest network depending on codes, will also need to be modified. 2006 New Yorker 19 June 56/1 Other high-tech security proposals, such as ‘smart boxes’—containers fitted with sensors that will track their location, temperature, and radiation and carbon monoxide levels—are all good in theory. smart card n. originally U.S. a type of plastic card containing an embedded microchip or integrated circuit, and used for any of a variety of processes carried out electronically, such as financial transactions, authorizing access to a particular area, etc. ΘΚΠ society > trade and finance > management of money > solvency > [noun] > credit documents > credit card credit card1888 bank card1947 card1950 American Express1958 Amex1958 charge card1962 banker's card1966 Barclaycard1966 cheque card1966 Master Charge1966 gold card1970 asset card1975 debit card1975 visa1976 affinity card1979 master card1979 smart card1980 phonecard1981 key card1985 Connect1987 Switch card1988 1980 N.Y. Times 14 Dec. iii. 4/3 They preferred to write checks, knowing these would not clear until the next pay check had arrived. ‘Smart card’ holders could react the same way. 1983 Electronics 10 Mar. 52 The Army started to explore the smart card in January 1982 as a complete records-keeping vehicle. 1994 A. Kent & J. G. Williams Encycl. Microcomputers XIII. 187 The main advantage of the smart card over magnetic cards is that it can record transactions in its own memory. 2005 Daily Tel. 6 June 4/2 Tag and beacon..requires all motorists to have a machine readable smart card which is read by overhead gantries. smart charging n. a system for managing the charging of a battery (esp. that of an electric vehicle) that allows the process to be spread flexibly over a period of time, optimizing electricity usage, and extending the life of the battery; frequently as a modifier, esp. in smart charging technology. ΚΠ 1991 PR Newswire (Nexis) 26 Oct. Cooperation..will be required to bring ‘smart charging’ to market. ‘Smart charging,’..is the GM [sc. General Motors] term for advanced charging technology, enabling electric utilities to balance the load that daytime charging could create. 1992 PR Newswire (Nexis) 30 Dec. ‘The trick of the Smart Charging System is that it takes the diagnostics—the pulse of the battery—several times every second and then adjusts the charge current,’ said..Norvik vice president of Research. 2017 D. Dallinger et al. in O. Veneri Technol. & Applic. for Smart Charging Electric & Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles vi. 237 A setup with long cables increases the sensitivity towards voltage deviations in the grid and therefore enables illustrating possible benefits of smart charging. 2017 Times 26 May 51/1 Royal Dutch Shell is..developing smart charging technology to prevent battery-powered cars causing blackouts. smart chip n. a microchip; esp. (in later use) one embedded in a smart card. ΚΠ 1977 Electronics 8 Dec. 96/1 (heading) Smart chip peripherals. 1999 Billboard 2 Oct. 89/2 American Express' new Blue card, which has a smart chip. 2012 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 10 June American credit cards..are not always accepted now that most of the world has shifted to cards that use a smart chip. smart dust n. Telecommunications a (hypothetical) collection of many minute sensors or other devices capable of wireless communication, designed to perform a task, esp. monitoring or detection, while dispersed over a certain area. ΚΠ 1998 V. S. Hsu et al. in Univ. Calif., Berkeley: Electronics Res. Lab. Memo. M98/2 (title) Wireless communications for smart dust. 2000 N.Y. Times 31 Dec. iv. 4/3 Clouds of ‘smart dust’—tiny computers and sensors each a cubic millimeter in size—will course through the skies monitoring the weather or the traffic below. 2010 Sci. Amer. (U.K. ed.) July 40/2 These machines might be used for roles that range from ‘smart dust’ that detects the enemy to cellular-level machines. smart fabric n. a synthetic fabric designed to respond in a particular way to some external stimulus, such as heat or particular chemicals; cf. smart material n. ΚΠ 1991 Toronto Star 17 Nov. e2/3 Skiers who crave functional sport gear will find that more and more skiwear is made up of temperature-sensitive ‘smart’ fabrics that transform the rays of the sun into body-wrapping warmth. 1998 L. Yamada Market Magic vii. 120 Smart fabrics may soon detect chemical warfare molecules and snare and lock them in. 2006 J. Byrnes Adv. in Sensing with Security Applic. 143 Examples already emerging include smart fabrics for monitoring personal health indicators such as breathing. smart glasses n. a pair of glasses or spectacles incorporating computer technology, esp. to add information or interactive functionality to what the wearer sees. ΚΠ 1993 Modesto (Calif.) Bee 13 Oct. g5/5 Other segments [of the program] feature the implantation of an artificial heart, and 'smart glasses' that help a visually impaired man to see his 7-year-old grandson for the first time. 2014 Daily Tel. 18 June 9/6 The idea of the smart glasses is to give people with poor vision an aid that boosts their awareness of what's around them. 2021 Financial Times (Nexis) 13 Mar. 10 These holograms are not Star Wars-style projections but realistic avatars that we can see through virtual reality headsets or smart glasses so that they appear to be in our room. smart grid n. a grid, esp. an electricity or water grid (grid n. 8), that has the ability to detect and react to local changes in use or demand with the aid of digital electronics. ΚΠ 1993 Washington Times 2 Apr. g6/6 Eventually, it [sc. Project Prometheus] hopes to link the entire continental road system into a smart grid. 2003 Wisconsin State Jrnl. (Nexis) 15 Aug. a10 A ‘smart grid’ for electricity transmission. 2009 Austin (Texas) Amer.-Statesman (Nexis) 25 Nov. b7 The proposal includes... 200 in-home smart grid water systems and 200 residential smart grid sprinkler systems. 2012 Press & Jrnl. (Aberdeen) (Nexis) 21 May 18 The transition to this 'smart grid' will cost billions of pounds, but will result in a more efficient and flexible grid. smart gun n. a gun incorporating technology that renders it capable of seemingly intelligent action; spec. one that can be fired only by an authorized user. ΚΠ 1986 Los Angeles Times 13 July (Calendar) 24/4 Director Cameron had worked hard to create the ‘Smart-gun’ that Weaver and others used so frequently. 1998 Guardian 23 Oct. i. 17/2 Several other companies are pursuing different smart gun technologies, including one that depends on recognising a gun owner's fingerprints. 2002 Philadelphia Inquirer 22 Dec. d2/1 A bill awaiting Gov. McGreevey's signature would make New Jersey the first state to require ‘smart gun’ technology. 2010 K. M. Brevard Story of Guns viii. 64 Inventor Michael Recce demonstrated an early model of his ‘smart gun’ with grip recognition technology. smart highway n. a road for which a central computer uses information from traffic flow or individual vehicles to ensure the most efficient movement of traffic, or to enable some form of road pricing to be implemented; spec. (hypothetically) one that provides for driverless vehicles. ΚΠ 1980 Business Week 10 Nov. 96 The coming impact of microelectronics... 1990–2000... ‘Smart’ highways for semi-automated driving enter early development. 1993 Fortune 8 Feb. 96/2 Perhaps the most attractive of the new ideas is smart highways. 2011 Austral. Financial Rev. (Nexis) 5 Sept. 43 Hold-ups in crucial government infrastructure projects to build smart highways are causing delays. smart material n. any of various artificial materials designed to respond in a particular way when exposed to some external environmental stimulus, such as heat. ΚΠ 1989 C. A. Rogers (title) Smart materials, structures, and mathematical issues. 1999 G. Stix & M. Lacob Who gives Gigabyte? viii. 199 The smart materials that have found their way into the widest range of devices are piezoelectric ceramics. 2000 Cutting Edge: Encycl. Adv. Technol. 259/1 Chromogenic materials are smart materials that vary in transparency according to the degree of illumination, temperature, or electric voltage to which they are exposed. 2012 Toronto Star (Nexis) 1 Mar. v. 6 Khan discovered he could embed several memories in the same smart material, enabling it to remember a series of shapes when exposed to different temperatures. smart meter n. any of various meters capable of some independent action or which incorporate a microprocessor; esp. an electricity or (less commonly) gas meter capable of transmitting readings to a utility company at regular intervals. ΚΠ 1974 L. Jacobs How to take Great Pictures with your SLR v. 80/1 This type of smart meter is called center-weighted because it assigns more ‘weight’ to center brightnesses when figuring exposure settings. 1993 CIO Aug. 94/2 The utility will be able to install smart meters with microchips that will inform customers how much electricity each appliance uses. 2011 Times (Nexis) 30 June 43 Smart meters give realtime digital information on how much electricity and gas is being used. smart mob n. a large group of people organized by means of mobile phones or other wireless devices who assemble together or act collectively, typically for political purposes; cf. flash mob n.²A term coined by U.S. critic Howard Rheingold (b. 1947).Although a distinction is usually made between smart mob and flash mob, the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably. ΚΠ 2002 H. Rheingold Smart Mobs p. xii Smart mobs consist of people who are able to act in concert even if they don't know each other. 2003 Time 10 Mar. 53/1 (heading) Day of the Smart Mobs... They toppled a President..and now have their sights on stopping a war. 2011 E. Morozov Net Delusion ix. 254 Jefferson..was not persuaded by the absolute goodness of the ‘smart mobs,’ a fancy term to describe social groups that have been organized spontaneously, usually with the help of technology. smart quotes n. Computing quotation marks in text which are automatically interpreted and displayed as opening or closing marks rather than as identical straight quotation marks, despite being keyed in the same way; (also) a software feature enabling this; also in singular, esp. with reference to an apostrophe automatically displayed in a form resembling a closing quotation mark. ΚΠ 1987 MacUser June 128/1 MiniWriter even has a feature called ‘Smart Quotes’ that inserts a proper left or right typographer's quote into your text when you key in a ‘neuter’ quote. 2002 P. Baines & A. Haslam Type & Typogr. vi. 163/2 Apostrophe... The correct character (sometimes known as a ‘smart quote’) should always be used, not a prime. 2010 TECHWEB (Nexis) 18 Aug. The company added the ability to convert default smart quotes into straight quotes using a key command. smart road n. = smart highway n. ΚΠ 1987 Business Wire (Nexis) 2 June Progress will be slow, but what can help is ‘smart cars and smart roads’. Rothery explained that auto companies now have the technology to convert cars into extremely intelligent vehicles with the use of computers and Geo-satellite systems. 1990 Sci. Amer. (U.K. ed.) May 65/1 Much of the added computing power will probably get plowed into new technology for smart cars and smart roads. 2012 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 6 Apr. 1 In the cities they will run on smart roads also embedded with sensors which keep them a safe distance apart at a safe speed. smart tag n. a tag with an embedded radio-frequency identification device, which is attached to or inserted in something for the purpose of tracking it remotely or for storing data about it; cf. RFID n. ΚΠ 1991 Age (Melbourne) 31 Jan. 19/8 ‘Smart’ tags that identify cargo containers and their contents both in storage and in transit. 2002 CIO 15 Oct. 92/3 Grocery retailers are eyeing radio frequency identification, or RFID, a ‘smart tag’ technology that could replace 30-year-old bar codes. 2011 Times of India (Nexis) 6 June The Maharashtra Livestock Development Board..plans to take up the work of implanting microchips (smart tags) on the ear or suitable body parts of the cattle. smartwatch n. (originally) any of various watches equipped with a microchip that extends its functionality beyond timekeeping; (now usually) a mobile telecommunications device designed to be worn on the wrist, typically with a touch screen display and the ability to connect to a smartphone. ΚΠ 1996 Age (Melbourne) (Nexis) 2 July (Computers section) 6 Most people have heard of smart cards, but smart watches? Using a new smart watch developed by Swatch and SkiData, visitors to 18 ski resorts in Europe and the United States can book tourist services. 2003 Associated Press Newswire (Nexis) 8 Jan. Touting an array of ‘smart’ watches and portable video players, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is offering further evidence that the world's largest software company sees slick consumer gadgets as computing's future. 2013 Chron.-Telegram (Elyria, Ohio) 8 Mar. c9/4 One of the smartwatch's biggest selling points is that it can alert you to calls, texts and emails you otherwise might have missed. 2014 Daily Tel. 7 July (Business section) 3/1 Heavy users of smartwatches can develop a ‘phantom watch’ mentality, frequently checking their bare wrist even when they are not wearing the device. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2013; most recently modified version published online December 2022). smartv.¹ Brit. /smɑːt/, U.S. /smɑrt/ Forms: Old English smeortan, early Middle English smeorte (chiefly south-west midlands), early Middle English smurte (south-western), Middle English smert, Middle English smerte, Middle English smertt, Middle English smirte, Middle English–1600s smarte, Middle English– smart, late Middle English smerth (3rd singular present indicative); Scottish pre-1700 smairt, pre-1700 1700s– smart, pre-1700 1800s smert; Newfoundland 1900s– smert, 1900s– smirt. Also past tense early Middle English smeart (south-east midlands), early Middle English smurte (south-western), Middle English smart, Middle English smerte, Middle English smorte (south-west midlands, plural), Middle English smorten (plural), Middle English smourte (south-west midlands, plural), Middle English (1500s Scottish) smert. Origin: A word inherited from Germanic. Etymology: Cognate with West Frisian smerte (weak), Middle Dutch smerten , smarten (strong and weak; Dutch smarten (weak)), Middle Low German smerten , smarten (weak), Old High German smerzan (only attested in present tense; Middle High German smerzen (strong and (rarely) weak), German schmerzen (weak)) < a West Germanic base shown also by smart n.¹ and smart adj. Compare ( < Middle Low German smerten or its later reflex) Swedish smärta , Danish smerte . Further etymology uncertain. Perhaps < any of three different Indo-European bases: (i) that of classical Latin mordēre to bite (see mordant adj.); (ii) that of ancient Greek σμερδνός , σμερδαλέος terrible (further etymology unknown); or (iii) that of Lithuanian smelkti (impersonal) to hurt (hence perhaps ultimately < the same base as smeek v.).Form history. In Old English not attested directly, but implied by derivatives showing the present stem of the verb (see quots. OE¹, OE² at sense 1a). The word was evidently a strong verb of Class III, for strong forms comparable to those in Middle Dutch and Middle High German survive in Middle English; compare e.g. 3rd singular past tense forms smart , smeart with Middle Dutch smart , Middle High German smarz . The Old English verb would also have had a regular past tense plural form smurton and past participle smorten . These stem forms are probably continued by some of the Middle English past tense forms (smurt- was liable to be spelt smort- to avoid minim confusion). Compare the past tense forms of other verbs historically of Class III, e.g. carve v. However, Middle English smurt- also occurs in the present tense, beside expected smert- ( < Old English smeort- , which shows the reflex of West Germanic e , with breaking), and because the word has a stem-final dental, it can be difficult to distinguish strong past tense forms from weak past tense forms with syncopation of the ending (compare forms of hurt v.). The past tense form smert (which already occurs in early Middle English without final e ) is perhaps originally analogical to the past tense of Class VII strong verbs such as fall v. The Middle English present stem form smirt- (and perhaps also smurt- ) appears to show the reflex of i-mutation of the present stem. This may perhaps go back to Old English forms of the 2nd and 3rd singular present indicative (early West Saxon smiertst , smiert ), but compare also forms of smart n.¹ The present stem form smart- shows regular later Middle English lowering of e to a before r . Further Old English evidence. It has been suggested that the following Old English gloss of uncertain sense may show a scribal error for (inflected infinitive) smeortenne :OE Aldhelm Glosses* (Brussels 1650) in L. Goossens Old Eng. Glosses of MS Brussels, Royal Libr. 1650 (1974) 241 Arsuros : crematuros, to smorcenne [OE Digby 146 to smorcenne].However, an alternative (and perhaps more likely) suggestion is that the form is a scribal error for smorgenne or smorienne (see smore v.). It is also possible that the gloss shows an otherwise unattested verb. 1. a. intransitive. Of an external agency (as a blow, smoke, etc.) or a wound, etc.: to be a source of sharp pain; to be acutely painful, to sting, to hurt. ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > ill health > pain > types of pain > suffer or cause type of pain [verb (intransitive)] > smart or sting smartOE bite1377 stound1513 urticate1843 the world > health and disease > ill health > pain > types of pain > affect with type of pain [verb (impersonal)] > smart smartOE OE [implied in: tr. Orosius Hist. (Tiber.) (1980) i. vii. 25 Gnættas comon..mid fyrsmeortendum bitum [L. ignitas sciniphes] & ægþær ge þa men ge ða nytenu unaablinnendlice piniende wæron. (at smarting adj. 1)]. OE [implied in: Antwerp-London Gloss. (2011) 52 Prurigo, smertung. (at smarting n.¹)]. a1225 (?OE) MS Lamb. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1868) 1st Ser. 83 (MED) Win makeð wunde smerte. ?c1225 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 176 Hwile þet ȝihchunge lest hit þuncheð god to grinden [read gnudden or gnuden]. ach þer efter me feleð hit bitterliche smeorten. c1300 Havelok (Laud) (1868) l. 2647 Þe dint bigan ful sore to smerte. c1405 (c1375) G. Chaucer Monk's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 627 Thogh hise deedly woundes so sore smerte His mantel ouer his hipes caste he. c1450 (c1400) Sowdon of Babylon (1881) l. 1544 Here woundis sore did smerte. 1594 T. Nashe Vnfortunate Traveller sig. N3 They basted him with a mixture..which smarted to the very soule of him. 1683 I. Walton Chalkhill's Thealma & Clearchus i. 54 Night drew on And his Wounds smarted: no Chirurgeon Was near at hand to bind them up. 1772 T. Bridges Burlesque Transl. Homer (rev. ed.) xi. 491 Ajax gave him two such spankers, They smarted worse than nodes and shankers. 1804 S. Rowson Misc. Poems 106 It smarts, dear, don't it? how can you endure it? Here's some Pomade divine, to heal and cure it. 1899 S. Levett-Yeats Heart of Denise 212 There was a broad pink circle, as large as a florin, around the mark of the trident, and it smarted and burned as the sting of a wasp. 1922 H. Quick Vandemark's Folly ii. 12 I began bawling as soon as the captain commenced putting arnica on my back—partly because it smarted so, and partly because he was so very gentle about it. 1975 W. C. Davis Battle of New Market (1983) vi. 64 His painful but slight wound smarting as he rode. 2011 C. Paolini Inheritance 92 Wyrden landed four touches in quick succession... The blows smarted. b. intransitive. Of words, an action, etc.: to cause mental pain or anguish; to be hurtful. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > suffering > cause of mental pain or suffering > be painful or distressing to a person [verb (intransitive)] to claw, rub, hit on the gallc1386 smarta1400 rankle1735 to play hell (with)1750 gnaw1859 a1400 Psalter (Vesp.) lxv. 6 in C. Horstmann Yorkshire Writers (1896) II. 195 His eghen on genge bihald þai: Þat smert [v.r. smarten; L exasperant], noght vphouen al In þam-seluen be þai sal. a1425 (a1400) Prick of Conscience (Galba & Harl.) (1863) l. 1317 (MED) Yhit es happe of welthe to drede mare Þan chaunce of angre, þat smertes sare. a1500 in F. J. Furnivall Hymns to Virgin & Christ (1867) 126 Sche answerd me schortly with wordys þat smartyd. 1548 Hall's Vnion: Edward IV f. ccxxviii^v Besyde this angre, ther came the next daye another corsey, that smarted a littell sorer. 1847 C. Dickens Dombey & Son (1848) xlv. 446 He saw that this..rankled and smarted in her haughty breast, like a poisoned arrow. 1900 Country Life Illustr. 17 Mar. 330/1 These idle words smarted worse than my wound. 1982 Field & Stream Mar. 194/1 ‘We all suffer from t'tyranny of our concepts.’ Oh, that smarts! Here he thinks he must give me some high-flying rhetoric. 2005 M. Lewycka Short Hist. Tractors in Ukrainian vi. 70 ‘Neither you nor I are going to look after him in his old age, are we?’ (Best to get it out into the open, even though the bluntness of it smarts.) †c. intransitive. To be heavy or hard upon a person. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > adversity > be in adversity [verb (intransitive)] > be oppressed > oppress or put stress on instand1382 peisea1450 to sit on (upon or in) one's skirts1546 smart1601 pinch1685 1601 W. Cornwallis Ess. II. xxxvi. sig. Y8 This smarted doubly vpon the taxed people. 2. transitive. To cause (physical or mental) pain to; to hurt, sting, be painful to.In early use often in impersonal construction with personal object. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > suffering > cause of mental pain or suffering > cause mental pain or suffering to [verb (transitive)] heavyc897 pineeOE aileOE sorryeOE traya1000 sorrowOE to work (also do) (a person) woeOE angerc1175 smarta1200 to work, bake, brew balec1200 derve?c1225 grieve?c1225 sitc1225 sweam?c1225 gnawc1230 sughc1230 troublec1230 aggrievea1325 to think sweama1325 unframea1325 anguish1340 teen1340 sowa1352 distrainc1374 to-troublea1382 strain1382 unglad1390 afflicta1393 paina1393 distressa1400 hita1400 sorea1400 assayc1400 remordc1400 temptc1400 to sit (or set) one sorec1420 overthrow?a1425 visit1424 labour1437 passionc1470 arraya1500 constraina1500 misgrievea1500 attempt1525 exagitate1532 to wring to the worse1542 toil1549 lament1580 adolorate1598 rankle1659 try1702 to pass over ——1790 upset1805 to touch (also get, catch, etc.) (a person) on the raw1823 to put (a person) through it1855 bludgeon1888 to get to ——1904 to put through the hoop(s)1919 the world > health and disease > ill health > pain > types of pain > affect with type of pain [verb (transitive)] > affect with smart or sting smarta1200 sting?1615 mordicate1651 punge1657 wasp1846 nettle1858 a1200 MS Trin. Cambr. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1873) 2nd Ser. 21 (MED) Þo ðe time cam swo þat hire ne oc ne ne smeart. c1230 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Corpus Cambr.) (1962) 168 Nis þing i þe worlde þet smeorteð him sarre. þen deð swuch beatunge. c1300 St. Patrick's Purgatory (Laud) l. 217 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 206 He criede a-non to ihesu crist þo him smert so sore. c1390 (a1376) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Vernon) (1867) A. iii. l. 161 For [þe] pore may haue no pouwer to playne, þauȝ hem smerte. ?c1400 (c1380) G. Chaucer tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (BL Add. 10340) (1868) ii. pr. iv. l. 1011 Þis is a þing þat gretly smertiþ me whan it remembreþ me. a1450 Generides (Pierpont Morgan) (1865) l. 6075 Mi woundes smert me so sore, With you may I fight nomore. a1475 (a1400) in Neuphilol. Mitteilungen (1973) 74 244 (MED) Mercy..I cry yin ore; Let me scape, me smertyt sore. 1558 T. Phaer tr. Virgil Seuen First Bks. Eneidos ii. 30 Than pardon we for pity gaue, this wayling smartes us so. c1590 J. Stewart Poems (1913) 204 That schrink of sorrow nether suerwe nor smart The Interpryse of thy magnanime hart. 1619 T. Adams Faiths Encovragement in Happines of Church 416 A Goad, that pricks the skin, and smarts the flesh; Affliction. 1787 Minor iii. viii. 188 My wound..still continued to smart me. 1844 H. Stephens Bk. of Farm II. 505 It is better that the effluvium be so strong as to smart the eyes. 1884 J. Burroughs Locusts & Wild Honey (new ed.) 109 There was not enough moisture in the air to take the sting out of the smoke, and it smarted the nose. 1959 D. Hewett Bobbin Up xvi. 191 The sour taste of the beer smarted his throat. 1987 W. Hagelund Whalers no More i. 21 His voice smarted my pride with its displeasure at my unnautical report. 2005 J. Novakovich Infidelities 149 The cold moist air and granulated snow smarted his face and chilled his ears. 3. a. intransitive. To feel sharp pain or distress (in later use esp. with a stinging pain); to suffer acutely or severely. Also figurative.Frequently with prepositions, as at, from, under, with, etc. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > suffering > suffer mental pain [verb (intransitive)] tholec897 throwOE smarta1200 pinea1225 to well in woea1350 painc1350 labourc1450 to fight sore at heart1490 tear1666 the world > health and disease > ill health > pain > types of pain > suffer or cause type of pain [verb (intransitive)] > smart or sting > suffer smarting or stinging smarta1200 sting1847 swithe1876 swither1876 a1200 (?OE) MS Trin. Cambr. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1873) 2nd Ser. 207 Ȝif he understant þat he habbe ofte agilt..þenne wile his heorte aken and smerten. c1300 St. Michael (Laud) l. 783 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 322 (MED) Þe bodie..þat in strong Anguysche deth smeorte [c1300 Harl. smurte]. a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. vii. xv. 359 Smoke þat dymmeþ iȝen and makeþ hem smerte. c1422 T. Hoccleve Dialogus (Durh.) l. 650 in Minor Poems (1970) i. 133 Smertith the fool for lak of good auys. c1500 (?a1437) Kingis Quair (1939) viii (MED) Myn eyne gan to smert for studying. 1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 722/1 If thou ytche, care nat, but if thou smarte, beware. 1568 A. Scott Poems (1896) xxiv. 17 I speik expart, suppois I smart. 1609 Bp. J. Hall Passion-serm. 56 Thou strikest; Christ Iesus smarteth, and will reuenge. 1670 C. Cotton tr. G. Girard Hist. Life Duke of Espernon ii. viii. 371 Countreys that yet smarted with the last years War. a1732 F. Atterbury Serm. Several Occas. (1734) I. 138 What Security have We, that, abusing and despising the same Mercies, we shall not smart under the same Judgments? 1782 F. Burney Cecilia II. iv. vi. 202 When I got home my feet were all blisters. You have no idea how they smarted. 1787 R. Burns Poems (new ed.) 234 I..justly smart beneath his sin-avenging rod. 1842 Bentley's Misc. May 500 With slubbered face, and shoulders smarting from the stripes, [he] presented himself before his mother. 1885 W. T. Hornaday Two Years in Jungle xxiii. 268 The salt perspiration ran into my eyes and caused them to smart. 1921 J. Galsworthy To Let v. 167 In a country smarting from officialism he felt that he had a strong case. 1954 R. Sutcliff Eagle of Ninth xiii. 138 The blue peat-smoke caught him by the throat and made his eyes smart. 1986 D. Hogan New Shirt ii. 66 His imagination smarted at the thought of crossroad dances which revealed kneecaps as smudged red as cheeks on a winter's day. 2003 Independent 30 Aug. (Mag.) 41/1 If your legs are still shaking and your seat is still smarting from the distant memory of your last bicycle ride, never fear. b. intransitive. To bear the penalty or suffer severely for an offence, misdemeanour, etc. ΘΚΠ society > authority > punishment > [verb (intransitive)] > receive punishment > be punished severely to buy the bargain dear1352 smart1534 sweata1625 to nap it1699 to get it1805 to catch or get Jesse1839 to get (also catch, take) it in the neck1881 to get beans1893 to get (also do) the book1928 1534 N. Udall Floures for Latine Spekynge gathered oute of Terence f. 175 Syrus shall aby on the bare skynne for my cause, or I shall cause Syrus bare rybbes to smarte for hit. 1579 W. Fulke Confut. Treat. N. Sander in D. Heskins Ouerthrowne 585 Balthasar abused the holy vessels, he smarted for it. 1634 T. Heywood Mayden-head well Lost i. i. sig. B1^v I shall ne're smart for't, what is't to me? 1687 A. Lovell tr. J. de Thévenot Trav. into Levant i. 78 Away, I say, else I'll make you smart for it. 1747 S. Richardson Clarissa I. xxxii. 219 Offences against warning ought to be smarted for. 1836 C. Dickens Pickwick Papers (1837) ii. 7 ‘You shall smart for this,’ gasped Mr. Pickwick. 1884 Sat. Rev. 5 July 5/2 He has done us a wrong, and should be made to smart for it. 1912 Boys' Life June 17/2 We go through this together, Teddy, and, if we win, we win, and, if we lose—why, then someone will have to smart for it! 1959 G. Davies Early Stuarts 1603–60 (ed. 2) xi. 311 If the bride's dress went beyond what the expected statute permitted, and her husband's purse was made to smart for it, ‘let him thank himself, not blame the dotage of his wife's mother.’ 1997 P. Volsky White Tribunal i. 20 They had broken their own curfew, and would smart for it, should Ravnar find out. c. intransitive. Of a person: to feel upset and annoyed, esp. as a result of the action of another. Now chiefly as present participle. ΚΠ 1625 B. V. Run-awyaes Answer sig. A3 To make him smart a little, thus print wee our Answere to those bold affronts, by which he does challenge vs. 1767 L. Sterne Life Tristram Shandy IX. xxiv. 290 I so smarted at the very idea of it, that I swore I would set up for Wisdom and utter grave sentences the rest of my days. 1797 M. Robinson Walsingham III. lvii. 149 His vanquished antagonist..can laugh at the victor, at the same moment that he smarts from his malevolence. 1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. vii. 200 The just indignation of the public was inflamed by many who were smarting from his ridicule. 1910 H. H. Richardson Getting of Wisdom xiv. 143 Bob, still smarting from his father's banter, was inclined to be stand-offish. 1941 W. J. Cash Mind of South i. i. 3 Some wealthy bourgeois, smarting under the snubs of a haughty aristocracy and fancying himself in the role of a princeling in the wilderness. 1955 Manch. Guardian 24 Mar. 8/2 Some people in France have smarted at the blunt things that statesmen have said about their country. 2010 New Yorker 25 Oct. 81/2 Moynihan was still smarting from the response, four years earlier, to ‘The Negro Family: The Case for National Action’. †4. transitive. To atone for (an offence) by suffering. Obsolete. rare. ΘΚΠ society > morality > virtue > righteousness or rectitude > reform, amendment, or correction > atonement > atone for [verb (transitive)] > by suffering coupc1300 quita1400 smarta1425 expiate1665 a1425 (?a1400) G. Chaucer Romaunt Rose (Hunterian) (1891) l. 7057 He shal in prisoun dye But if he wole..smerten that that he hath do. c1450 C. d'Orleans Poems (1941) 138 (MED) A Wel myn hert..ye wille aby If that ye pursew moche my rakil ey To don vs bothe to smert yowre towchis nyse. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2013; most recently modified version published online June 2022). smartv.² Brit. /smɑːt/, U.S. /smɑrt/ Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: smart adj. Etymology: < smart adj. Compare smarten v. colloquial. 1. With up. a. transitive. To make smart or spruce; to improve in appearance or style; = smarten v. 2a. ΘΚΠ the mind > attention and judgement > beautification > beautify [verb (transitive)] > improve in appearance cheer1560 tickle1567 smudge1589 perk1590 smug1598 pamper1611 smart1780 smarten1788 primp1801 to fig up1872 dude1899 posh1919 1780 H. Wickham Let. 21 June in E. A. Robertson Spanish Town Papers (1959) ii. 46 I am very much obliged to you for our unexpected supplys which has smarted Us up nicely it would give you great pleasure to see the little Boys drest. 1813 Polyanthos May 79 I smarted myself up a little, and was thought quite the thing at our parish club. 1819 R. Hunt Notes Visit Ohio in Autumnal Fruits & Flowers (1843) 42 Here we stayed all night, had the carriage washed, greased and smarted up. 1867 W. D. Howells Venetian Life (ed. 2) vii. 97 Rooms in a tumble-down old palace, where the walls, shamelessly smarted up with coarse paper, crumble at your touch. 1908 Archit. Rec. 13 331/2 The architectural injury too often wrought in ‘smarting up’ the churches of old villages. 1983 M. M. R. Khan Hidden Selves (1989) iv. 79 The..ranch-hands..smarted up the saddlery without really working at it. b. intransitive. To make oneself smart or spruce; to improve one's appearance. Also occasionally: to become smart. Cf. smarten v. 2c. Now rare. ΘΚΠ the mind > attention and judgement > beautification > beautification of the person > beautify (the person) [verb (intransitive)] trick?1532 mundify1568 prune1568 to finify it1586 prink1591 brisk1592 tiff1700 fetish1735 beautify1777 adonize1781 fix1783 smart1794 smarten1813 titivate1835 primp1887 doll1916 1794 M. Darwall Poems I. 88 I did not smart up in my holiday clothes To sit here tweedle tweedle. 1837 J. B. Derby Musings of Recluse 17 One night he smarted up, Put on his best blue coat and dickey. 1853 Knickerbocker Sept. 275 [They] remarked that Mr. Blimmer has ‘smarted up’; by which expression they make graceful allusion to a new black coat, and to very becoming plaids. 1884 Cleveland (Ohio) Herald 17 Feb. 10/3 The old city is smarting up wonderfully with fresh paint. 1906 Overland Monthly Apr. 359/1 In..one such [tavern] hangs forth the weather-beaten sign ‘2d to wash face and smart up’. 2. a. transitive. With out of. To use cunning or plausible deception to deprive (a person) of something. rare. ΚΠ 1796 F. Burney Camilla III. vi. vi. 251 I can serve you as I did another gentleman once before, that I smarted out of a good ten pound out of his pocket. 1964 R. Phares Bible in Pocket (1971) ix. 125 Graves did not get the cattle, the Methodist explanation being that the opposition ‘smarted’ him out of them, claiming that the bond was defective. b. transitive. U.S. To make (one's way) by cunning or shrewdness out of (also into, etc.) a situation or position. ΚΠ 1922 Mansfield (Ohio) News 7 July 10/1 When she was cornered, she vamped or smarted her way out. 1933 Chicago Defender 30 Sept. 5/2 He..bluffed, lucked, and ‘smarted’ his way into power. 1994 T. Clancy Debt of Honor xxxi. 487 The takedown was pretty cute, but Secretary Fiedler here might have smarted his way out of that with our help. 2006 C. W. Henderson Jungle Rules i. 5 He smarted his way into airframe mechanics' school and slid downhill from there. 3. With up. Originally and chiefly U.S. a. intransitive. To become more shrewd, wise, intelligent, or aware; to ‘wise up’. Cf. smarten v. 1b. ΚΠ 1888 Atlantic Monthly Jan. 42/1 Gittin' silver spoons for her now she's 'most dead. He'd better have smarted up an' helped her more while she was well. 1969 Sunday Post Crescent (Appleton, Wisconsin) 25 May v. 10/2 Once she had been caught by a particular method, she would smart up and be wary of its use the next time. 2009 V. C. Andrews Delia's Gift 65 He's finally smarted up... Too late to help himself, I'm afraid. b. transitive. To make more shrewd, intelligent, or aware; esp. to give (a person) information about a particular subject or situation, to inform. Cf. smarten v. 1a. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > make more intelligent [verb (transitive)] opena1350 smart1926 1926 D. Hammett in Black Mask Feb. 64/2 Remember, I got no idea what this is all about... If you're counting on me talking, too, you'd better smart me up. 1936 L. Hughes & A. Bontemps When Jack Hollers (typescript) ii. 11 White skin ain't smarted him up a bit. 1949 Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin) 6 Oct. (Sports section) 21/4 Maybe a few of them have learned..just where they rate. If they haven't, somebody should smart them up but quick. 1998 W. N. Eskridge & S. V. Levinson Constit. Stupidities, Constit. Trag. xxii. 107 A number of potential stupidities have been smarted up by highly dynamic interpretation. 2004 New York Post (Nexis) 18 Jan. 74 Being broke and ignored smarted you up. 4. intransitive. With off. Originally and chiefly U.S. To talk to or answer someone in an impertinent or rude manner; to be witty at someone else's expense. Also transitive with direct speech as object. ΚΠ 1902 Hutchinson (Kansas) Daily News 28 May 2/2 A tendency people have to smart off at the expense of those who are suffering. 1974 K. C. Constantine Blank Page 78 He smarted off at somebody a lot younger and a lot bigger. 1996 N.Y. Times 12 May e7/2 If they smarted off to him, he'd call the sheriff. 2004 M. J. Bryant Beaming Light ii. 28 ‘Spare me the details, please,’ Judy smarted off. Derivatives ˈsmarted-up adj. originally and chiefly U.S. that has been smarted up (in senses 1 and 3 of the verb); cf. smartened adj. at smarten v. Derivatives. ΚΠ 1832 Juvenile Misc. Mar. 8 You seem to be mighty brisk, and smarted up. 1966 Appleton (Wisconsin) Post Crescent 21 Dec. b3/2 These smarted-up longjohns..retail in a variety of designs. 2012 Weekly Standard 21 May 38/2 Damsels doesn't feel like mere smarted-up escapism. None of Stillman's films feels that way. This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, March 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022). smartadv. Brit. /smɑːt/, U.S. /smɑrt/ Forms: Middle English smarte, Middle English smert, Middle English smerte, Middle English smerþe, Middle English– smart. Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: smart adj. Etymology: < smart adj. Compare earlier smartly adv. Chiefly colloquial in later use. = smartly adv. (in various senses). ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > manner of action > vigour or energy > [adverb] > with vigour or intensity of operation or effect swithlyc888 mightilyeOE strongeOE fastlyOE stronglyOE smartlyc1225 smartc1300 mightlya1393 freshlyc1425 almightily1609 feckfullya1614 shrewly1707 vivaciouslya1711 keenly1837 drivingly1842 drastically1850 incisively1871 the world > action or operation > manner of action > vigour or energy > [adverb] > briskly or actively quiverlyOE smartc1300 smartlyc1300 spacklya1350 merrilyc1390 sprackly1393 livelyc1425 activelya1500 busilya1513 allegrement1608 alacriously1609 nippily1650 briskly1665 alertly1725 up and doing1817 pert1859 brash1884 stirringly1889 bobbishly1936 the world > action or operation > manner of action > rapidity or speed of action or operation > [adverb] > quickly or promptly ratheeOE rathelyeOE radlyOE yareOE timelyOE belivec1175 belivesc1275 hastivelyc1300 prestc1300 smartc1300 smartlyc1300 prestly1340 spacklya1350 pertlya1375 redelya1375 redlya1375 yeplya1375 readilyc1390 yarelya1400–50 hasty?a1425 promptly1490 hastyfullyc1500 snackly1728 snack1739 snaply1768 in quick sticks (also in a quick stick)1835 pronto1892 quick smart1955 snappily1981 the world > movement > rate of motion > swiftness > swift movement in specific manner > [adverb] > swiftly and briskly sharplya1000 smartc1300 smartlyc1300 spackc1330 wightlyc1330 spacklya1350 swipperly?a1400 wighta1400 nimblyc1450 quiverly1519 roundly1548 nimble1568 bragly1579 snap1583 yarelya1616 briskly1665 smartish1839 nippily1932 snappingly1976 the mind > attention and judgement > fashionableness > [adverb] > smartly smartly1748 smartish1770 smart1771 flashly1812 dashingly1837 nattily1849 nobbily1859 stylishly1879 chicly1905 ritzily1925 snappily1936 c1300 Havelok (Laud) (1868) l. 215 Þe king..dede him sore swinge, And wit hondes smerte dinge. c1400 (c1378) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. xi. l. 426 Þere smitte no þinge so smerte ne smelleth so soure. c1450 (?a1400) Wars Alexander (Ashm.) l. 5515 Þan made he smythis to gaa smert & smethe him a chaiere. a1500 ( J. Yonge tr. Secreta Secret. (Rawl.) (1898) 180 Thes newely come me shale moche more Smertre assayle. 1581 A. Hall tr. Homer 10 Bks. Iliades vi. 84 His launce he threw so smart, That through he thirlde his buckler quite. 1606 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. (new ed.) ii. iii. 128 Smarter then Racquets in a Court re-ierk Balls 'gainst the Walls of the black-boorded house. 1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Georgics i, in tr. Virgil Wks. 65 The Stars shine smarter . View more context for this quotation 1771 Hist. Sir William Harrington I. xvi. 149 Dressed as smart as my close mourning would permit me. 1794 Ld. Nelson Let. 19 July in Dispatches & Lett. (1844) I. 449 The Enemy have fired smart since daylight. 1811 J. Austen Sense & Sensibility I. xxi. 289 For my part, I think they are vastly agreeable, provided they dress smart and behave civil. 1852 H. B. Stowe Uncle Tom's Cabin I. ii. 28 He'd..put him to hoeing and digging, and ‘see if he'd step about so smart’. 1886 Pall Mall Gaz. 29 Nov. 3/1 It is better for tenants to be compelled to pay up smart than to allow them to heap up a great burden of arrears. 1926 D. Hammett in Black Mask Feb. 66/1 I talk smart, and bingo! First thing you know she's propositioning me. 1982 S. Paretsky Indemnity Only iv. 43 Don't talk smart with me. 1993 Kiplinger's Personal Finance Mag. June 46/2 Upwardly mobile women want to dress smart. 2007 New Yorker 6 Aug. 32/3 A journalist asks Bubba how difficult it is for him to forgo his passion for his driver and in order to play it smart. Compounds Forming adjectives with present participles, as smart-dressing, smart-sailing, smart-trotting, etc., and past participles, as smart-built, smart-dressed, etc. ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > ill health > pain > types of pain > [adverb] > smarting or stinging sharplya1023 smart1624 sharp1635 stingingly1667 smartingly1703 bitingly1874 1624 J. Gee Foot out of Snare App. 114 A song of the same smart-yerking tune. 1632 J. Hayward in tr. G. F. Biondi Eromena Transl. to Rdr. sig. A4^v Fenced..with sharp-pointed brambles and smart-stinging briers. 1753 A. Murphy Gray's Inn Jrnl. 17 Mar. 128 A laced Coat, and smart-cocked Hat. 1822 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Jan. 21/2 A neat, airy, smart-sailing cutter. 1842 W. M. Thackeray Irish Sketch-bk. xiv. 159 A very good, neat-looking, smart-trotting, chestnut horse. 1851 H. Mayhew London Labour I. 379/2 Smart-dressing servant-maids, perhaps, are my best customers. 1884 D. Pae Eustace 97 We want a smart-built craft like yon. 1918 W. Wood Elizabethan Sea-dogs vi. 114 The pinnaces were kept till a suitable, smart-sailing Spanish craft was found, boarded, and captured to replace them. 1984 Guardian 2 July 8/1 You see really smart dressed people, not a hair out of place. 2010 D. Lanois Soul Mining i. 8 My dad was a greaseball, as were his friends. They were the smart-dressing kind of greaseballs—no jeans. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022). < n.¹a1225n.²1709adj.OEv.¹OEv.²1780adv.c1300
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smartn.1

Compounds

smartn.2

smartadj.

Phrases

Compounds

smartv.1

smartv.2

Derivatives

smartadv.

Compounds

smartn.¹

smartn.²

smartv.¹

smartv.²