smither

See also: Smither

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsmɪðə(ɹ)/

Noun

smither (plural smithers)

1. (chiefly in the plural) A fragment or atom.
   • 1880, Alfred Tennyson, “[Ballads and Other Poems.] The Northern Cobbler”, in Ballads and Other Poems, London: C[harles] Kegan Paul & Co., […], →OCLC, stanza XVIII, page 38:

     My lass, when I cooms to die, / Smash the bottle to smithers, the Divil's in 'im,' said I.

   • 1920, Kennett Harris, Meet Mr. Stegg, page 164:

     That claim of mine, which was yours, has got a seventeen-foot vein and a sandstone roof, and not a smither of slate or bone in it.

2. (UK, dialect, dated) Light, fine rain.

Related terms

• smithereens

Translations

fragment

• Finnish: sirpale (fi)

light, fine rain

• Finnish: tihkusade (fi), tihku (fi)

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “smither”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• hermits, mithers