[f. SMUG a.]
Smug (and Sir Smug) is used as a suggestive personal name by Cowper Hope 413 and 438.
1. Univ. slang. A quiet hard-working student.
1882. Daily News, 23 March, 4/7. A ‘smug’ was always unpopular, but all unpopular persons were not smugs. The quiet smug was generally not a rich man.
1884. Radford, in Birrell, Obiter Dicta, 212. He had many friends at Clement’s Inn who were not smugs, nor, indeed, reading men in any sense.
transf. 1888. Pall Mall Gaz., 25 May, 1/1. The Conservative free and easy voters—unlike the Liberal smugs—‘would have their holidays.’
2. A smug or self-satisfied person.
1891. Sat. Rev., 13 June, 701. The ocean of silly cant which has been poured forth on the occasion by smugs and prigs.
