subs. (old).—1. A blacksmith (B. E. and GROSE).
1611. ROWLANDS, The Knave of Clubs. A SMUG of Vulcan’s forging trade.
1629. DEKKER, Londons Tempe.
| Here, reach him those two dozen; I must now | |
| A golden handle make for my wifes fann: | |
| Worke, my fine SMUGGES. |
1709. WARD, Works, i. 133. You’re an impudent slut, cries the SMUG at his bellows.
2. (common).—An affectedly proper or self-satisfied person. Hence as adj. (B. E. and GROSE: now accepted) = ‘Neat and spruce.’
3. (school and university).—See quot. As verb. = to work hard.
1888. GOSCHEN, Speech at Aberdeen, 31 Jan. Epithets applied to those who … commit the heinous offence of being absorbed in it [work]. Schools and colleges … have invented … phrases, semi-classical or wholly vernacular, such as a “sap,” a “SMUG,” a “swot,” a “bloke,” a “mugster.”
1889. The Lancet, 7 Sept., 471. Students … continually at study … absent-minded … often offended at … a joke. They become labelled ‘SMUGS,’ and are avoided by their class-mates.
Verb. (common).—1. To pilfer; to snatch: in quot. 1633 = to sneak into favour. Hence SMUGGINGS (see quot. 1847). SMUG-LAY (old thieves’), see quots. c. 1696 and 1785: also SMUGGLER.
1656. R. FLETCHER, Martiall, viii. 46.
| Thou mayst succeed Ganymede in his place, | |
| And unsuspected SMUG the Thund’rer’s face. | |
| O happy she shall climbe thy tender bed! | |
| And make thee man first for a maiden head! |
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. SMUG-LAY. Those that Cheat the King of his Customs by private Imports and Exports.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. SMUG-LAY. Persons who pretend to be smugglers of lace and valuable articles; these men borrow money of publicans by depositing these goods in their hands; they shortly afterwards decamp, and the publican discovers too late that he has been duped, and on opening the pretended treasure he finds trifling articles of no value.
1847. HALLIWELL, A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, etc., s.v. SMUGGING. Games had their peculiar times or seasons, and when any game was out, as it was termed, it was lawful to steal the thing played with….
| Tops are in, spin ’em again; | |
| Tops are out, SMUGGING about. | |
Hone’s Every-Day Book, i. 253. |
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, II. 508. I shouldn’t mind his licking me, I’d SMUG his money and get his halfpence or somethink. Ibid., I. After that he used to go ‘SMUGGING’ [running away with] other people’s things.
2. (thieves’).—To hush up; (3) to steal; and (4) to apprehend.
1857. Morning Chronicle, 3 Oct. She wanted a guarantee the case should be SMUGGED, or in other words compromised.
1877. J. W. HORSLEY, Jottings from Jail, i. Then two or three more coppers came up, and we got SMUGGED, and got a sixer (six months) each.
