~v. wp....rA'-, and ct'. x/niith)-. ('r MTI(i.> 
kiss, smack; MIKi. xm<iclc<::,-ii. 0. 
fell a tn-e. xcliiiint:, a smack : so- .vmr7,-l. Tin- 
word xiiinxli has been more or less associate, i 
with the diff. word ninxlil.'] I. ,-. 1. To 
break in pieces utterly an,l with violence; dash 
to pieces; shatter: crush. 
Here every thing is broken :md munshed to pieces. 
liurke. 
<>r 
6713 
,.,,(,./, ,,f tht-fath.T- i 
w '*"" 
''"" ' I.M- l',i,-i,-. ],. i-:i. 
Til"'! :.. t ;, fellow of ut: | ,. 
Ihy lite hath hii'l sonic KHuiIrl, uf honour In It 
N/1'ifr...P. I . 
"I'ii- us KI id, und Inisidl 
and r. (/,,,-,) ||, ( . \\ j,|,, w j | 
| Also xiiiili-h ; origin ob- 
(irni-i- tlm-iiiniiiil. Recoil, of Childhood, Torn Frock. 
2. To render insolvent; bankrupt. [Slang.] 
3. To dash violently; fling violently ami 
noisily: as, he smashed it against the wall. 
[Vulgar.] 4. In linen-tennis, to strike with 
much strength; bat very swiftly. 
He told them where to stand so as not to Interfere with 
each other's play, when to smashn. ^ " ' * 
high in the air. I 
= Syn. 1. Shatter, etc. See dash. 
(smat'er). r. |< M ].;. .,,, , ., ._ make 
a noise: prob. < Sw. x H ,,,llr,i (M1IH. MK 
clatter, crackle; perhaps a var. of Sw. xniittnt 
= Ow.snaadre, chatter, Jabber, = I), materen 
= MHG. snaterrn, G. sclmnlti rn, cackle, chat 
ter, prattle ; a freq. form of an imitative root 
appearing in another form in Hw. *//, chat, 
, chat, talk, = Dan. snak = ( 
produce a crushing or crashing. 
The 500 Express, of exactly J-inch bore, is considered 
by most Indian sportsmen the" most effective all-round 
noise), croak, Dan. SIIKI*!,,, MWM&0, gnash or 
smack with the lips in eating: see smack'*, 
good penetration, and it is not too cumbrous to cover 
moving game. If. W. Greener, The Gun, p. 171. 
2. To be broken or dashed to pieces suddenly 
and roughly; go to pieces by a violent blow or 
collision. 3. To be ruined; fail; become insol- 
2. To talk superficially or iguorantly. 
For I abhore to smatter 
Of one so deuyllyshe a matter ! 
Skelton, Why Come ye nat to Courte? 1. 711. 
vent or bankrupt: generally with up. 7sfa~ng? 3 ' T ^^ ' ' U ght ? r Sll l )erficial knowledge. 
-4.;ro dash violently: as, ttie Lomotiv^s I ^ ' thyng, I have lytell knowledge^,. It. ^ 
II. trans. 1. To talk iguorantly or superfi- 
cially about ; use in conversation or quote in a 
superficial manner. 
smashed into each other. [Colloq.] 5. To 
utter base coin. [Slang.] 
smash (smash), re. [< smash, .] 1. A violent 
dashing or crushing to pieces: as, the lurch of 
the ship was attended with a great smash of 
glass and china. 2. Destruction; ruin in gen- 
eral; specifically, failure; bankruptcy: as, his 
business has goneto smash. [Colloq.] 
It ran thus: "Your hellish machinery is shivered to 
smash on Stilbro' Moor, and your men are lying bound 
hand and foot in a ditch by the roadside." 
Charlotte Bronte, Shirley, ii. 
I have made an awful smash at the Literary Fund, and 
have tumbled into 'Evins knows where. 
Thackeray, Letters, 1847-55, p. 120. 
3. A drink composed of spirit (generally bran- 
dy), cut ice, water, sugar, and sprigs of mint: 
it is like a julep, but served in smaller glasses. 
4. A disastrous collision, especially on a rail- 
road; a smash-up. [Colloq.] 
smasher (smash'er), n. [< smash + -er 1 .] 1. 
One who or that which smashes or breaks. 2. 
A pitman. Halliwell. [Prov. Eng.] 3. Any- 
thing astounding, extraordinary, or very large 
and unusual ; anything that decides or settles 
a question; a settler. [Slang.] 4. One who 
passes counterfeit money. [Slang.] 5. A 
counterfeit coin. [Slang.] 
Another time I found 168. ed., and thought that was a 
haul ; but every bit of it, every coin, shillings and six- 
pences and joeys, was bad all smashers. 
Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, II. 488. 
6. A small gooseberry pie. Halliwell. [Local, 
Bag.] 
smashing (smash 'ing), p. a. 1. Crushing; also, 
slashing; dashing. 
Never was such a smashing article as he wrote. 
Thackeray, Philip, xvi. 
2. Wild; gay. Halliwell [Prov. Eng.] 
smashing-machine (smash'ing-ma-shen"), . 
A heavy and quick press used by bookbinders 
to flatten and make solid the springy folds of 
books before they are sewed, 
smashing-press '(smash'ing-pres), n. 1. A 
smashing-machine. 2. An embossing-press. 
smash-up (smash'up), n. A smash ; a crash ; es- 
pecially, a serious accident on a railway, as 
when one train runs into another. [Colloq.] 
There was a final smash-up of his party as well as his 
own reputation. 
St. James's Gazette, Jan. 22, 1887. (Encyc. DM. ) 
In the smash-up he broke his left fore-arm and leg. 
Alien, and Neural., X. 440. 
smatch 1 (smach), v. [< ME. smachen. smecehen, 
an assibilated form of smack 1 .'] I. intrans. To 
have a taste ; smack. 
II. traiix. To have a taste of; smack of. 
Neuerthelesse ye haue yet two or three other figures that 
smatch a spice of the same false semblant, but in another 
sort and maner of phrase. 
Puttenham, Arte of Eng. Poesie, p. 159. 
smatch 1 (smach), . [< smatch 1 , i 1 .] Taste; 
tincture; also, a smattering; a small part. 
359 
The barber smatters Latin, I remember. 
B. Jonson, Epicoene, iv. 2. 
For, though to smatter ends of Greek 
Or Latin be the rhetorique 
Of pedants counted, and vain-glorious, 
To smatter French is meritorious. 
S. Butler, Our Ridiculous Imit. of the French. 
2. To get a superficial knowledge of. 
I have smattered law, smattered letters, smattered geog- 
raphy, smattered mathematics. 
R. L. Stevenson, The Dynamiter, p. 7. 
3. To taste slightly. 
Yet wol they kisse . . . and nnatre hem. 
Chaucer, Parson's Tale. 
smatter (smat'er), . [< smatter, %] Slight or 
superficial knowledge ; a smattering. 
All other sciences . . . were in a manner extinguished 
during the course of this [Assyrian] empire, excepting only 
a smatter of judicial astrology. 
Sir W. Temple, Ancient and Modern Learning. 
That worthless smatter of the classics. 
C. F. Adams, Jr., A College Fetich, p. 27. 
smatterer (smat'er-er), . One who smatters, 
in any sense ; one who has only slight or super- 
ficial knowledge. 
Lord B. What insolent, half-witted things these are ! 
Lord L. Ho are all tmatterers. Insolent and impudent. 
B. Jonson, New Inn, ii. 2. 
I am but a smatterer, I confess, a stranger ; here and 
there I pull a flower. Burton, Anat. of Mel,, p. 24. 
Many a smatterer acquires the reputation of a man of 
quick parts. Ining, Knickerbocker, p. 148. 
smattering (snmt'er-ing), n. [Verbal n. of 
smatter, r.] A slight or superficial knowledge : 
as, to have a smattering of Latin or Greek. 
He went to schoole, and learned by 12 yeares a compe- 
tent smattering of Latin, und as entred into the Greek 
before 15. Aubrey, Lives (William Petty). 
As to myself, I am proud to own that, except some 
smattering in the French, I am what the pedants and 
scholars call a man wholly illiterate that is to say, un- 
learned. Swift, Polite Conversation, Int. 
smatteringly (smat'er-ing-li), adv. In a smat- 
tering way ; to an extent amounting to only a 
smatter. 
A language known but smatteringly 
In phrases here and there at random. 
Ti-niiiixtin. Aylmer's Field. 
S. M. D. The abbreviation of short meter double. 
See meter 2 , 3. 
smear (smer), n. [< ME. smere, smer, < AS. smer a, 
smeorii, fat, grease, = OS. smer = OFries. smere 
= MD. smcre, D. smeer = MLG. timer, smer = 
OHG. smero, MHG. smer, G. schmeer, schmiere 
= Icel. smjtir, smiir, fat, grease, = Sw. Dan. smor, 
butter; cf. Goth, smairthr, fatness, smarint, 
dung; Olr. smir, marrow; Lith. xmarsas. fat, 
xmala, tar; Gr. /trpov, unguent, afi{-pt(, emery for 
polishing. Cf. smear,v., and cf. also. xmult, xmrlfl. 
The noun is in part (def . 2) from the verb. ] 1 . 
Fat; grease; ointment. [Bare.] 2. A spot, 
blotch, or stain made by, or as if by, some unc- 
tuous substance rubbed upon a surface. 
smeddom 
slow liruli, 
Ml damp and lolling VRJMMII, witb no HUH. 
Hut , of liKlit. 
Met . 
3. In mgar-mannf., tin- technical term f,, 
mriiliitiiiii. 4. Iii jiiillirii. ;i mixture , ' 
materials iii water, use, I x,r coating 
In-fore they are placed in the sag).'. 
glazing-fun 
smear ' [ < Ml '.. 
AS. -.,1,1 1 in, i. f mi/nil u = Mil. 1). 
xiiirrrii = Ml,( !. ..(( /( ii. I.I .. 
xnii-inii. ^mi linn, greasi-. = ()||i; 
Mll'i. xmini, fiiiirn-i n. i, .. anoint. 
.ir, = Icel. xmi/rjii = Sw. KiiiJirjii = Dan. 
iioinl, smear; from the noun. Hence 
1. To overspread with ointment: an- 
oint. 
With oilc of mylse smerie him. and his immr quenche. 
Hiii' p. 18. 
2. To overspread thickly, irregularly, or in 
blotches with anything unctuous, viscous, or 
ailhrsive ; besmear; ilanb. 
a 
Tlie sleepy grooms with blood. 
Shot., Macbeth, U. 2. 49. 
3. To overspread too thickly, especially to the 
violation of good taste ; paint, or otherwise 
adorn with something applied to a surface, in 
a way that is overdone or tawdry. 
The churches smeared as usual with gold and stucco and 
paint. Lathra/i, Spanish Vistas, p. 22. 
4. To soil ; contaminate ; pollute. 
Smeared thna and mired with infamy. 
Shot., Much Ado, IT. L Iii. 
Smeared dagger, an American noctuid moth, Aeronyeht 
iililinita. C. V. IMey, 3d .Mo. Ent. Rep., p. 70. See cut 
under dagger, 4.= Syn. 2. To bedaub, begrime. 4. To 
tarnish, sully. 
smear-case (smer'kas), n. [< G. schmier-kase, 
whey, cheese, < schmtcr, grease, + kiise, cheese: 
see smear and cheese.'} Same as cottage cheese 
(which see, under cheesi'l). [U. S.] 
smear-dab (smer'dab), n. The smooth dab, or 
lemon-dab, Microstomus or Cynicoglossus micro- 
cephalux, a pleuronectoid fish of British waters. 
Also called miller's topknot and sand-fluke. 
smear-gavelt, . A tax upon ointment. 
Euerych sellere fo [of] grece and of smere and of talwa 
shal, at the feste of Estre. to the kynge a peny, in the 
name of smergauel. Knylish Oilds (E. E. T. 8.X P- 358. 
smeariness (smer'i-nes), n. The character of 
being smeary or smeared. 
smeary (smer'i), a. [< smear + -yi.] 1. Tend- 
ing to smear or soil; viscous; adhesive. [Bare.] 
The smeary wax the brightening blaze supplies, 
And wavy fires from pitchy planks arise. 
linirf, tr. of Lucan's Pharsalia, 111. 
2. Showing smears; smeared: as, a smeary 
drawing. 
smeath (smeth), . [Also smethe (also, locally, 
in a corrupt form smees) ; prob. = MD. smeente, 
D. smient, a widgeon. The equiv. E. smee is 
prob. in part a reduction of smeath: see smee. 
1. The smew, Mergellusalbellus. [Prov. 
2. The pintail duck: same as smee, 4. 
[New Jersey.] 
Smeaton's blocks. A system of pulleys in two 
blocks, so arranged that the parts 
of a continuous rope are approxi- 
mately parallel. The order in which 
the rope passes round the pulleys consecu- 
tively is shown by the figures in the cut. 
Named after the engineer who invented it 
smectite (smek'tit), . [< Gr. 
aut/nrif (also afinnrplf), a kind of ful- 
lers' earth (< afif/^av, rub, wipe off 
or away, a collateral form of a/iav, 
wipe, rub, smear), + -ite 2 .] A mas- 
sive, clay-like mineral, of a white to 
green or gray color: it is so called 
from its property of taking grease 
out of cloth, etc. 
smeddum (smed'um), . [Also 
smitliiini, ftniitlinni (lead ore beaten 
to powder), < AS. smedema, smide- 
ia, smetlnia, also ftmedeme, meal, fine flour.] 1 . 
The powder or finest part of ground malt; also, 
powder, of whatever kind. 2. Sagacity; quick- 
ness of apprehension; gumption; spirit; mettle. 
A kindly laas she Is, I'm seer, 
Has fowth o' sense and mtddum In her. 
SUnner-s Misc. Poet., p. 156. (JomiMOM.) 
3. [In this sense often xniilliiini.'] Ore small 
enough to pass through the wire bottom of tin- 
sieve [north of England] ; in ciinl-niiiiiiiy, fine 
slack [Midland coal-field, England]: also, a 
layer of clay or shale between two beds of coal 
