DictionaryAI

smoke

SaySMOHK/smoʊk/UK/sməʊk/

Pluralsmokes (some meanings)

Verbsmokes, smoking, smoked

26 meanings of smoke

Practice

  1. 1
    noununcountable
    The visible mixture of gases and fine particles given off by something burning or smoldering; also, a single column of this rising from a fire.

    Black smoke poured from the factory chimney all afternoon.

    Firefighters warned that smoke inhalation kills more people than flames do.

    UsageUsually no a for the stuff itself: thick smoke, a cloud of smoke, a puff of smoke.

    Similarfumes

  2. 2
    verbtransitive
    To draw smoke from a burning cigarette, cigar, pipe, or other substance into the mouth or lungs and breathe it out.

    He smokes a cigar only on special occasions.

    Sailors used to smoke strong pipes on long voyages.

    UsageWith no object, she smokes means she is a smoker. Smoking works as a noun: smoking is banned here.

    Similarpuff

  3. 3
    verbintransitive
    To give off smoke, as something burning or smoldering does; of a fireplace, to send smoke into the room instead of up the chimney.

    The volcano continued to smoke for weeks after the eruption.

    Damp firewood smokes heavily and gives little heat.

    Similarsmolder, fume

    Note

    The sense closest to the Old English verb smocian, "to smoke, emit smoke; fumigate," whose line runs back through Proto-Germanic to an Indo-European root for smoke. It takes no object: chimneys, trucks and volcanoes simply smoke, as in Milton's L'Allegro (1645), "Hard by a cottage chimney smokes."

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Old English smocian meant to emit smoke and to fumigate. gutenberg.org
    • Smoke descends from smocian through Germanic ancestry ultimately traced to an Indo-European root meaning to smoke. en.wiktionary.org
    • John Milton's L'Allegro contains the quoted line, with minor capitalization and punctuation differences. en.wikisource.org
    • L'Allegro's first publication bears the title-page year 1645. en.wikipedia.org
  4. 4
    nouncolloquialcountable
    A single instance of smoking a cigarette or cigar, or the time the act lasts.

    They stepped out for a smoke between sets.

    A quick smoke calmed his nerves before the interview.

    UsageUsually have a smoke or go out for a smoke. The plural smokes more often means cigarettes.

    Similarcigarette, drag, puff

    Note

    A noun for the break rather than the cigarette: you have a smoke or go out for a smoke. Mark Twain's narrator in 1884 'had a good long smoke.'

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

  5. 5
    nouncolloquialcountable or uncountable
    Something to smoke, such as a cigarette, tobacco, or marijuana.

    He stopped at the gas station for a pack of smokes.

    He always kept a little smoke hidden in his desk.

  6. 6
    nouncountable or uncountable
    An opaque cloud released on a battlefield, used to signal or to block the enemy's view.

    The platoon advanced behind a wall of smoke laid down by mortar rounds.

    Colored smoke marked the landing zone for the incoming helicopters.

    Note

    Here the word widens to mean any cloud of particles or vapor hanging in the air, and this is the cloud made on purpose. Its jobs include signaling and blinding enemy observers. When the cloud is used to blind, it becomes a smokescreen.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • A smokescreen is smoke deliberately released to obstruct observation of military units. en.wikipedia.org
  7. 7
    noununcountable
    Any cloud of fine particles, vapor, or mist spread through the air, such as fog, breath in cold air, pollen, or stage fog.

    Theatrical smoke from a fog machine drifted across the stage during the opening number.

    Where the ammonia and acid vapors met, a cloud of white smoke formed above the lab bench.

    UsageAmounts are a cloud, a puff or a wisp of smoke. A smoke usually means a cigarette or a smoking break.

    Similarfog, mist, vapor, haze, cloud

    Note

    Every narrower kind of smoke sits inside this one: the smoke of a fire, scattered pollen, a battlefield screen and breath fogging in cold air are all clouds of this sort.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

  8. 8
    verbtransitive
    To expose food or other material to smoke in order to flavor, dry, preserve, or medicate it.

    Farmers smoke hams in a special shed for several weeks.

    Every fall, my uncle smokes salmon over alder wood in his backyard.

    UsageVery common as an adjective: smoked salmon, smoked ham, smoked cheese.

    Note

    Beekeepers use it of the hive itself. Thomas D. Seeley's The Lives of Bees (2019) describes a keeper who "smoked the bees to calm them" before working the hive. That use is neither drying nor curing. Here the smoke acts on living insects, a long way from curing a ham in a smokehouse.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Thomas D. Seeley wrote The Lives of Bees, published in 2019. jstor.org
    • The book describes someone smoking bees to calm them while working with a hive; the quoted wording is accurate. en.wiktionary.org
    • Smoking a hive acts on living bees to calm or move them, rather than drying or curing material. resources.beesfordevelopment.org

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of smoke apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 1, 4–7, 9, 11, 13, 15–16

Old English smoca ("smoke") was probably formed from the verb and became Middle English smoke. Dutch smook and Middle Low German smôk, both meaning "smoke," are related.

Meanings 2–3, 8, 10, 12, 14, 17–21

The root is Proto-Indo-European *(s)mewg- ("to smoke"), which led to Proto-Germanic *smukōną and Proto-West Germanic *smokōn. Old English smocian, meaning "to smoke, emit smoke, fumigate," then became Middle English smoken. West Frisian smoke, Dutch smoken, and German Low German smoken are cognates.