smack

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Archived revision by DCDuring (talk | contribs) as of 19:10, 11 December 2019.
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See also: talk smack and smack talk

English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /smæk/
  • Audio (AU)(file)
  • Rhymes: -æk

Etymology 1

From Middle English smac, smak, smacke, from Old English smæc, smæċċ (“taste, smatch”), from Proto-Germanic *smakkuz (“a taste”), from Proto-Indo-European *smegʰ-, *smeg- (“to taste”). Cognate with English dialectal smatch, Scots smak (“scent, smell, taste, flavour”), Saterland Frisian Smoak (“taste”), West Frisian smaak (“taste”), Dutch smaak (“taste”), German Schmack, Geschmack (“taste”), Swedish and Norwegian smak (“taste”), Norwegian smekke . Akin to Old English smæccan (“to taste, smack”). More at smake, smatch.

Noun

smack (countable and uncountable, plural smacks)

  1. A distinct flavor, especially if slight.
    rice pudding with a smack of cinnamon
  2. A slight trace of something; a smattering.
  3. (slang, uncountable) Heroin.
Derived terms
Translations
(slang) heroin — see horse

Verb

smack (third-person singular simple present smacks, present participle smacking, simple past and past participle smacked)

  1. (transitive) To get the flavor of.
  2. (intransitive) To indicate or suggest something; used with of.
    Her reckless behavior smacks of pride.
    • (Can we date this quote by Shakespeare and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      All sects, all ages, smack of this vice.
  3. (intransitive) To have a particular taste; used with of.
    • 1820-25, Charles Lamb, Essays of Elia
      He had his tea and hot rolls in a morning, while we were battening upon our quarter-of-a-penny loaf — our crug — moistened with attenuated small beer, in wooden piggings, smacking of the pitched leathern jack it was poured from.
Derived terms

Etymology 2

Smacks in a painting by Carlton Theodore Chapman, ca 1890 (Brooklyn Museum of Art).

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle Low German smack (Low German Schmacke, Schmaake (“small ship”)) or (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Dutch smak.

Noun

smack (plural smacks)

  2. A small sailing vessel, commonly rigged as a sloop, used chiefly in the coasting and fishing trade and often called a fishing smack
  3. A group of jellyfish.

Translations

Etymology 3

From or akin to Dutch smakken (“to fling down”), (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Plautdietsch schmaksen (“to smack the lips”), regional German schmacken, Schmackes (“vigour”) (compare Swedish smak (“slap”), Middle Low German smacken, the first part of Saterland Frisian smakmuulje (“smack”)).

Noun

smack (plural smacks)

  1. A sharp blow; a slap. See also: spank.
  2. A loud kiss.
    • (Can we date this quote by Shakespeare and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      a clamorous smack
  3. A quick, sharp noise, as of the lips when suddenly separated, or of a whip.
Translations

Verb

smack (third-person singular simple present smacks, present participle smacking, simple past and past participle smacked)

  1. To slap someone.
  2. To make a smacking sound.
    • (Can we date this quote by Benjamin Disraeli and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      A horse neighed, and a whip smacked, there was a whistle, and the sound of a cart wheel.
  3. (New Zealand) To strike a child (usually on the buttocks) as a form of discipline. (US spank)
  4. To wetly separate the lips, making a noise, after tasting something or in expectation of a treat.
    • 1763, Robert Lloyd, “A Familiar Epistle” in St. James Magazine:
      But when, obedient to the mode / Of panegyric, courtly ode / The bard bestrides, his annual hack, / In vain I taste, and sip and smack, / I find no flavour of the Sack.
  5. To kiss with a close compression of the lips, so as to make a sound when they separate.
Translations
to strike a child as a form of discipline — see spank

Adverb

smack (not comparable)

  1. As if with a smack or slap; smartly; sharply.
    Right smack bang in the middle.
Derived terms

Anagrams

Swedish

Noun

smack n

  1. (in the phrase "inte ett smack") smidgeon, piece, small bit

See also

Anagrams

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