smokes

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of smoke.

   She smokes outside the office during her afternoon break.

   The chimney smokes heavily whenever the damp wood is lit.

   Note

   One verb form carries a whole family of uses, with or without an object. Without one, it can describe a habit (she smokes), a burning thing giving off smoke, or a badly drawing fireplace that sends smoke into the room instead of up the chimney. With an object, it means drawing on tobacco (he smokes a pipe) or curing food with smoke (the shop smokes its own fish).

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of smoke.

   He stepped outside for one of his after-dinner smokes.

   The roadside stand sold cold drinks and cheap smokes to passing travelers.

   Note

   The plural belongs to the cigarette senses. Only the countable, colloquial uses of smoke pluralize naturally: a cigarette, or one session of smoking it. So cheap smokes are packs for sale, and after-dinner smokes are breaks taken to have one. The vapor rising from a fire is a mass noun, and so is the figurative smoke of illusion or concealment. For several of those, say clouds or plumes of smoke instead.

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