subs. (old).—1. A chimney. Hence (modern) THE SMOKE = any large city: spec. London: also THE GREAT SMOKE.
1672. PETTY, The Political Anatomy of Ireland, 9. Dublin hath Houses of more than one SMOAK.
2. (common).—A cigar: also the act of smoking. DRY-SMOKE = an unlighted cigar or pipe between the lips.
1860. W. H. RUSSELL, My Diary in India, xxvii. Soldiers … lounging about, taking an early morning SMOKE.
1881. E. V. PAGE, ‘’Arry.’ ’Arry smokes a twopenny SMOKE.
3. (colloquial).—Idle talk; vanity; anything of little or no value. TO END IN SMOKE = to serve or come to no useful end.
1594. SHAKESPEARE, The Rape of Lucrece, 1027. This helpless SMOKE of words doth me no right.
1603–15. The Court and Times of James the First, 291. [A project] GOES AWAY IN SMOKE.
Verb. (old).—1. To examine; to suspect; to observe; to discover; to understand; TO TWIG (q.v.): cf. SMELL, NOSE, &c. Whence SMOKY = (1) suspicious, inquisitive; and (2) = jealous (B. E., GROSE, BEE).
1280. The Ancren Riwle, 316. Schrift ȝet schal beon naked: þet is, nakedliche imaked, and nout bisaumpled feire, ne hendeliche ISMOKED. [Confession must be naked, that is made nakedly, not speciously palliated, nor gently touched on.]
1598. JONSON, Every Man in his Humour, iv. 8. I’faith, I am glad I have SMOK’D you yet at last. Ibid. (1622), The Masque of Augurs [Works] (MOXON), 230. Notch. Sir, we do come from among the brewhouses in St. Katharine’s, that’s true, there you have SMOK’D US.
1598. SHAKESPEARE, All’s Well that Ends Well, iii. 6. He was first SMOKED by the old Lord Lafew—when his disguise and he is parted, tell me what a sprat you shall find him.
1607. DEKKER, Jests to Make You Merie [GROSART, Works, ii. 329]. Kinchen, the coue towres, which is as much as, Fellow, the man SMOKES or suspects you. Ibid. (1620), Lanthorne and Candlelight, iv. The two Free-booters, seeing themselues SMOAKD.
1611. MIDDLETON and DEKKER, The Roaring Girle [Works] (1873), III. 220. Wee are SMOAKT … wee are boyld, pox on her!
1614. CHAPMAN, Odysseys, iv. 337.
| And yet through all this difference, I alone | |
| SMOKED his true person. |
1624. MASSINGER, The Renegado, iv. 1.
| All’s come out, Sir! | |
| We are SMOK’D for being Cunny-catchers. | |
| Ibid. (1659), The City Madam, iii. 1. | |
| Shave. I’ll hang you both, you rascals! | |
| I can but ride:—you for a purse you cut | |
| In Paul’s at a sermon; I have SMOAK’D you, ha! |
c. 1650. BRATHWAITE, Barnaby’s Journal (1723), 21.
| An apt one | |
| Punk unto a Captain | |
| I embraced … | |
| But Door creak’d and Captain SMOAK’T IT. |
1693. CONGREVE, The Old Batchelor, iii. 6. I begin to SMOKE ye: thou art some forsaken Abigail. Ibid. (1694), The Double Dealer, iii. 3. Should she SMOKE my design upon Cynthia I were in a fine pickle.
1705. VANBRUGH, The Confederacy, iii. I’m thinking—hum—she’ll SMOKE that though. Ibid. (1726), VANBRUGH and CIBBER, The Provoked Husband, ii. He seems a little SMOKY.
1708–10. SWIFT, Polite Conversation, i. Pray, madam, SMOKE miss yonder, biting her lips, and playing with her fan.
1715. ADDISON, The Drummer, iii. 1. Thou’rt very smart, my dear. But see! SMOKE the doctor. Ibid. (1716), The Free-holder, No. 44, 21 May. I began to SMOAK that they were a Parcel of Mummers.
1733. SWIFT, Answer to Sheridan’s New Simile.
| With which he made a tearing show; | |
| And Dido quickly SMOK’D the beau. |
1753. FOOTE, The Englishman returned from Paris, i. 1. A SMOAKY fellow this classic. Ibid. (1762), The Liar, i. 1. People in this town are more SMOAKY and suspicious.
1772. BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 75.
| The witch of Endor, | |
| Soon SMOK’D th’ affair, and like a prophet, | |
| Got up and told the meaning of it. |
1773. H. KELLY, The School for Wives, iii. 5. Who the devil could think, that he would SMOKE us in this disguise?
1845. DE QUINCEY, Coleridge and Opium-Eating, in Works, xi. 86. The orator grew urgent; wits began to SMOKE the case, as active verbs—the advocate to smoke, as a neuter verb.
1877. W. H. THOMSON, Five Years’ Penal Servitude, iii. 220. He stayed in a place doing the grand and sucking the flats till the folks began to SMOKE him as not all there.
1900. R. H. SAVAGE, Brought to Bay, iii. The secret reports of the head porter proved that no one could SMOKE OUT the aristocratic invalid.
2. (school).—To blush.
3. (old).—To ridicule; TO QUIZ (q.v.). Whence SMOKER = a mocker, a practical joker; SMOKING = bantering.
1700. CONGREVE, The Way of the World, iii. 15. Wit. This is a vile dog; I see that already. No offence! ha! ha! ha! To him; to him, Petulant, SMOKE him.
1703. WARD, The London Spy, ix. 197. We SMOAK’D the Beaus, almost as bad as Unlucky School-Boys us’d to do the Coblers, till they sneak’d off one by one.
1782. BURNEY, Cecilia, vi. 11. Why, you know, you never laugh at the old folks, and never fly at your servants, nor SMOKE people before their faces.
1812. COLMAN, Poetical Vagaries, 150. These wooden Wits, these Quizzers, Queerers, SMOKERS.
d. 1840. BURNEY, Diary (1842), ii. 69. What a SMOKING did Miss Burney give Mr. Crutchley.
4. (B. E.).—‘To affront a Stranger at his coming in.’
5. (venery).—To copulate (FLETCHER): see RIDE.
6. (old).—To raise a dust by beating: cf. TO DUST ONE’S JACKET.
1596. SHAKESPEARE, King John, ii. 1, 139. I’ll SMOKE your skin-coat, an I catch you right.
7. (Australian).—To decamp: see ABSQUATULATE.
1893. Sydney Morning Herald, 26 June, 8, 8. He said to the larrikins,… ‘You have killed him.’ ‘What!’ said one of them, ‘do not say we were here. Let us SMOKE.’
PHRASES. LIKE SMOKE = rapidly: see LIKE; ALL SMOKE, GAMMON, AND SPINACH = all nothing; ‘No SMOKE, but there’s fire’ (or ‘Where there’s SMOKE there’s fire’) ‘of a thing that will out’ (B. E.). See KNOCK; PIPE; TAKE.
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, III. 105. Taking money LIKE SMOKE.
