Smiter, subs. (old).—1. A sword.
1591. Lyly, Endimion, i. 3. It is my simiter; which I by construction often studying to bee compendious, call my smiter.
1611. Cotgrave, Dict., s.v. Cimeterre. A Scymitar, or smyter, a kind of short and crooked sword, much in use among the Turks.
1633. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iv. 3. Then, Basket, put thy smiter up, and hear; I dare not tell the truth to a drawn sword.
1659. Leg. of Capt. Jones. His fatal smiter thrice aloft he shakes.
2. (old).—An arm (B. E. and Grose).
Smithereens (or Smithers),
subs. (common).—Small fragments.
All to smithereens =
all to smash (q.v.).
1855. Tennyson, Northern Cobbler, xviii. 'Smash the bottle to smithers, the Divil's in 'im,' said I.
1872. Black, Adv. of a Phaeton, iii. Knocked heaps of things to Smithereens
Smithfield-bargain, subs. phr.
(old).—See quots.
1598. Shakspeare, 2 Hen. IV., i. 2, 56. Page. He's gone into Smithfield to buy your worship a horse. Falst. I bought him in Paul's, and he'll buy me a horse in Smithfield; an I could get me but a wife in the stews, I were manned, horsed, and wived.
1621. Burton, Anat. Melan., III. iii. iv. 2. He that . . . buys a horse in Smithfield . . . shall likely have a jade.
1662. Wilson, Cheats, v. 5. If this is not better than a Smithfield bargain—give me so much money, and my horse shall leap thy mare.
d.1704. Brown, Works, iii. 54. By the procurement of these experienc'd matrons, a marriage is struck up like a Smithfield bargain. There is much higling and wrangling for t'other ten pounds.
1731. Ward, Terræfilius, 4, 29. He can no more speak without breaking the fourth commandment than a Smithfield jockey can sell a horse without giving the purchaser a lye into the bargain.
1753. Richardson, Grandison (1812), vi. 44. Women when . . . urged to give way to a clandestine or unequal address . . . are pleaded with to rise against the notions of bargain and sale, Smithfield bargains you Londoners call them.
1772. Graves, Spir. Quixote, v. xv. The devil take me if I would marry an angel upon the footing of a mere Smithfield bargain.
1776. Foote, Bankrupt, ii. 1. You deposit so much money, and he grants you such an annuity; a mere Smithfield bargain, that is all.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Smithfield bargain. A bargain whereby the purchaser is taken in. This is likewise frequently used to express matches, or marriages, contracted solely on the score of interest, on one or both sides, where the fair sex are bought and sold like cattle in Smithfield.
1881. Davies, Supp. Glossary, s.v. Smithfield Bargain . . . A marriage of interest, where money is the chief consideration: the allusion is to buying a wife in Smithfield. Cf. Breton, Olde Man's Lesson (1605), p. 7: 'Fie on these market matches, where marriages are made without affection.'
Smock, subs. (old).—A woman:
cf. petticoat, placket, skirt,
muslin, &c. Hence, in combination
= pertaining to, or connected
with women. Thus smockage
= the use of the sex; smock-alley
= the female pudendum:
see Monosyllable; smock-face
= an effeminate: smock-faced
= 'snout-fair' (B. E.),
'fair-faced' (Grose), smooth-faced;
smock night-work
(service, or employment) =
copulation; smock-loyalty =
constancy; smock-treason =
adultery; smock-servant = (1)
a mistress, and (2) a lover; smock-agent
= a bawd; smockster
(smock-merchant, smell-smock,
or smock-tearer) = a
whoremonger: smell-smock
also = the penis, and as adj. =
wanton; smock-vermin = a contemptuous
address; smock-toy
