[f. SMOKE v.]
1. The action or fact of emitting smoke, giving off steam or vapor, etc.
1530. Palsgr., 271/2. Smokyng, fumiere.
1611. Cotgr., Fumement,… a smoaking.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, 6. To prevent the smoaking of Chimneyes.
1715. Lond. Gaz., No. 5392/4. Any smoaking of Chimneys.
1852. Dickens, Bleak Ho., vi. The smoking and steaming of the heated horses.
2. The action of inhaling and exhaling smoke from a pipe, cigar, or the like.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., II. 709. Given more to bibbing and smoaking than the duty of his Office.
1762. Goldsm., Beau Nash, 24. Smoaking in the rooms was permitted.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 369. Nowhere was the smoking more constant than at Will’s.
† 3. A bantering or quizzing. Obs.
1781. Mme. D’Arblay, Diary, June. What a smoking did Miss Burney give Mr. Crutchley. Ibid., Aug. Whether he … took the opportunity to give us all a smoking.
4. The curing of meat, etc., by exposure to smoke.
1819. in Pantologia, s.v.
1872. Yeats, Techn. Hist. Comm., 224. The efficacy of smoking depends on certain chemical products.
1901. Black, Carp. & Build., vi. 65. The barrel … is covered over at the top, and the smoking proceeds.
5. School slang. Blushing.
1862. Farrar, St. Winifred’s, iv. Smoking is the name fellows give to blushing.
6. attrib. a. In combs. relating to the curing of provisions by smoke, or the production of smoke for some special purpose, as smoking-house, knife, loft, pot, vessel, works.
1648. Hexham, II. Een roock-vat, a Censoir, or smoaking vessell.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Thuribulum, a Censer, or Smoaking-Pot, to burn Incence in.
1736. N. Bailey, Household Dict., Ll 2. A Smoking Closet for drying Tongues.
1759. R. Brown, Compl. Farmer, 61. Curing bacon … by smoking lofts or closets, adjoining to the funnels of their chimneys.
1791. Trans. Soc. Arts, IX. 136. The smoking works being erected at the foot, and the tar-funnel higher up the hill.
1805. Lindley, Voy. Brasil (1808), 260. Flesh … which they salt, and dry in the sun and smoking-houses.
1839. Mag. Dom. Econ., IV. 118. The hams … are smoked in smoking-houses.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 62. New and Improved Smoking Knives for Fishermen.
b. In terms denoting things or places used for, or in connection with, the smoking of tobacco, etc., as smoking apparatus, -cap, -carriage, etc.; smoking-bean U.S., the catalpa bean, the pods of which are smoked by boys.
1771. Mackenzie, Man Feeling, xxi. He took from his pocket a particular *smoaking apparatus.
1872. Calverley, Charades, III. ii. Nor work *smoking-caps for cousins.
1871. M. Collins, Mrq. & Merch., III. ii. 67. The … gentlemen were … ensconced in a *smoking-carriage.
1891. E. Peacock, N. Brendon, I. 138. He put on a *smoking coat.
1878. H. Smart, Play or Pay, i. Appearing in a radiant *smoking-jacket that matched the cigar-case.
1843. Holtzapffel, Turning, I. 161. Meerschaum, Amber,… are principally used for *smoking-pipes.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., II. 885. In competition with the *smoking-shops, there are now shops where injections are to be had at so much the syringeful.
1884. Health Exhib. Catal., 57/2. The *Smoking Temple in the Classic style, with niches and divans in colour.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 259. Snuff, chewing and *smoaking tobacco.
1880. U. S. Census, Rep. Culture Tobacco, 15. Other cigar and smoking tobacco.
c. In the sense of ‘at which smoking takes place or is allowed,’ as smoking-concert, etc.
1809. A. Henry, Trav., 299. In smoking-feasts, or feasts of the pipe, or calumet, held in honour of the spirits, to whom the smoke of tobacco is supposed to be a most acceptable incense.
1887. C. E. Pascoe, London of To-day, vii. (ed. 3), 86. The smoking concert … with its genial Bohemianism.
1895. Daily News, 4 Feb., 5/3. The annual meeting of the club would be held … as a smoking ‘At Home.’
