1877. Five Years Penal Serv., iii. He stayed in a place doing the grand, and sucking the flats, till the folks began to smoke him as not 'all there.'
1900. Savage, Brought to Bay, 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.
1698-1700. Ward, Lond. Spy, ix. 197. We smoak'd the Beaus almost as bad as unlucky schoolboys us'd to do the coblers, till they sneak'd off one by one.
1700. Congreve, Way of World, iii. 15. This is a vile dog; I see that already. No offence!. . . to him, Petulant, smoke him.
1782. Burney, Cecilia, vi. 11. You never laugh at the old folks, and never fly at your servants, nor smoke people before their faces.
1814. Colman, Poet Vagaries, 150. These quizzers, queerers, smokers.
d. 1840. D'Arblay, 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. Shakspeare, K. John, ii. 1, 139. I'll smoke your skin-coat, an I catch you right.
7. (Australian).—To decamp: see Absquatulate.
1893. Sydney M. 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. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., III. 105. Taking money like smoke.
Smoker (or Smoke-shell), subs.
(common). 1. A chamber-pot:
see It.
2. (B. E.).—'A Vessel to Blind the Enemies, to make way for the Machine to play.
3. (colloquial).—A smoking-carriage: see Smoke 3. Also 4. (old) = a tobacconist (B. E. and Grose).
5. (old). See quot.
1847. Halliwell, Arch. Words, s.v. Smoker. At Preston, before the passing of the Reform Bill in 1832, every person who had a cottage with a chimney and used the latter, had a vote, and was called a smoker.
Smoke-stack, subs. phr. (nautical).—A
steam-boat.
1902. Athenæum, 8 Feb., 177, 1. The author shows the proper sailor-man's contempt for smoke-stacks, and to this day would sooner travel in a "windjammer" than a P. & O. boat—or one of his readers is mistaken.
Smooth, subs. (American).—A
meadow; a grass-plot; a lawn.
1870. Judd, Margaret, i. 2. Get some plantain and dandelion on the smooth for greens.
Smoother, subs. (old).—See quot.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, III. iii. My claw-backs, my smoothers, my parasites.
Smotheration, subs. (American).—1.
Suffocation.
