Verb

smart (third-person singular simple present smarts, present participle smarting, simple past smarted or (obsolete) smort, past participle smarted or (obsolete) smort or (obsolete) smorten)Category:English lemmas#SMARTCategory:English verbs#SMARTCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#SMARTCategory:Pages with entries#SMARTCategory:Pages with 10 entries#SMART

1. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#SMART) To hurt or sting.

   After being hit with a pitch, the batter exclaimed "Ouch, my arm smarts!"Category:English terms with usage examples#SMART

   • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable and Company, […], →OCLC:

     He moved convulsively, and as he did so, said, "I'll be quiet, Doctor. Tell them to take off the strait waistcoat. I have had a terrible dream, and it has left me so weak that I cannot move. What's wrong with my face? It feels all swollen, and it smarts dreadfully."

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   • 2023 October 12, HarryBlank, “Fire in the Hole”, in SCP Foundation‎, archived from the original on 22 May 2024:

     When the thrashing stopped, Fina used the pipe to roll the first woman's corpse over. She bent down, feeling a curious distance between the sudden serenity in her mind and the actions of her limbs, and beat the flames off the jacket with her bare hands. They were sooty and smarting as she used them to pry the garment off the woman's slack shoulders, and threw it over her own.

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2. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#SMART) To cause a smart or sting in.
   • a. 1652, Thomas Adams, Faith’s Encouragement:

     A goad that […] smarts the flesh.

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3. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#SMART) To feel a pungent pain of mind; to feel sharp pain or grief; to be punished severely; to feel the sting of evil.
   • 1735 January 13 (Gregorian calendar; indicated as 1734), [Alexander] Pope, An Epistle from Mr. Pope, to Dr. Arbuthnot, London: […] J[ohn] Wright for Lawton Gilliver […], →OCLC, page 5, lines 81–82:

     You think this cruel? take it for a rule, / No creature ſmarts ſo little as a Fool.

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   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 11:15:

     He that is ſurety for a ſtranger ſhall ſmart for it.

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   • 1790, [Ann Radcliffe], chapter XI, in A Sicilian Romance. […], volume II, London: […] T[homas] Hookham, […], →OCLC, page 85:

     Meanvvhile the Abate exulted in ſucceſsful vengeance, and the marquis ſmarted beneath the ſtings of diſappointment.

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   • 1928, W[illiam] B[utler] Yeats, Sophocles’ King Oedipus: A Version of the Modern Stage, London: Macmillan and Co., […], →OCLC:

     Tiresias. I say that you are living with your next of kin in unimagined shame.
     Oedipus. Do you think you can say such things and never smart for it?
     Tiresias. Yes, if there be strength in truth.

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Adjective

smart (comparative smarter, superlative smartest)Category:English lemmas#SMARTCategory:English adjectives#SMARTCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#SMARTCategory:Pages with entries#SMARTCategory:Pages with 10 entries#SMART

1. Exhibiting social ability or cleverness.

   Synonyms: bright, capable, sophisticated, witty; see also Thesaurus:intelligent

   Antonyms: backward, banal, boorish, dull, inept

   • 1811, [Jane Austen], chapter 19, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:

     I always preferred the church, and I still do. But that was not smart enough for my family. They recommended the army. That was a great deal too smart for me.

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2. (informalCategory:English informal terms#SMART) Exhibiting intellectual knowledge, such as that found in books.

   Synonyms: cultivated, educated, learned; see also Thesaurus:learned

   Antonyms: ignorant, uncultivated, simple

4. (often in combination) Equipped with intelligent behaviour (digital/computer technology).

   Antonym: dumb

   smart car

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   smartcard

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   smartphone

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   • 2018 December 18, Joe Pinsker, “The Coming Commodification of Life at Home”, in The Atlantic‎, archived from the original on 25 January 2019:

     “Imagine this,” says an advertising consultant named Barry Lowenthal. “I’m a smart toaster, and I’m collecting data on how many times the toaster is used.”

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6. Good-looking; well dressed; fine; fashionable.

   Synonyms: attractive, chic, dapper, stylish, handsome

   Antonyms: garish, outré, tacky

   a smart outfit

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   You look smart in that business suit.

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7. Cleverly shrewd and humorous in a way that may be rude and disrespectful.

   Synonym: silly

   He became tired of his girlfriend's smart remarks.Category:English terms with usage examples#SMART

   Don't get smart with me!Category:English terms with usage examples#SMART

   • 1728, Edward Young, Satire:

     Who, for the poor renown of being smart / Would leave a sting within a brother's heart?

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   • 1711 October 1 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “THURSDAY, September 20, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 175; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:

     I played a sentence or two at my butt, which I thought very smart, when my ill genius, who I verily believed inspired him purely for my destruction, suggested to him such a reply

     The spelling has been modernized.

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   • 1923, Ernest Bramah, The Eyes of Max Carrados:

     The clerk gave Mr. Carlyle a knowing look, as of one smart man who will be appreciated by another.

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8. Sudden and intense.
   • 1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, (please specify |book=I to XVI), in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the [Sheldonian] Theater:

     smart skirmishes, in which many fell

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   • 1860 July 9, Henry David Thoreau, journal entry, from Thoreau's bird-lore, Francis H. Allen (editor), Houghton Mifflin (Boston, 1910), Thoreau on Birds: notes on New England birds from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau, Beacon Press, (Boston, 1993), page 239:

     There is a smart shower at 5 P.M., and in the midst of it a hummingbird is busy about the flowers in the garden, unmindful of it, though you would think that each big drop that struck him would be a serious accident.

9. Causing sharp pain; stinging.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

     How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience.

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10. Sharp; keen; poignant.

    a smart painCategory:English terms with usage examples#SMART

11. (Southern USCategory:Southern US English#SMART, datedCategory:English dated terms#SMART) Intense in feeling; painful. Used usually with the adverb intensifier right.

    He raised his voice; it hurt her feelings right smart.Category:English terms with usage examples#SMART

    That cast on his leg chaffs him right smart.Category:English terms with usage examples#SMART

12. (archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#SMART) Efficient; vigorous; brilliant.
    • 1697, Virgil, “Georgic 1”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

      The stars shine smarter.

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13. (archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#SMART) Pretentious; showy; spruce.

    a smart gownCategory:English terms with usage examples#SMART

14. (archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#SMART) Brisk; fresh.

    a smart breezeCategory:English terms with usage examples#SMART

15. (AppalachiaCategory:Appalachian English#SMART) Hard-working.

Noun

smart (plural smarts)Category:English lemmas#SMARTCategory:English nouns#SMARTCategory:English countable nouns#SMARTCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#SMARTCategory:Pages with entries#SMARTCategory:Pages with 10 entries#SMART

1. A sharp, quick, lively pain; a sting.

   Synonyms: pang, throe; see also Thesaurus:pain

   • 1567, Ovid, “(please specify the book number or chapter)”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis, […], London: […] Willyam Seres […], →OCLC:

     […] the bodie had no smart / Of any wound: it was the minde that felt the cruell stings.

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   • 1715–1720, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “Book 5”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, page 25, lines 176-178:

     If chance some Shepherd with a distant Dart / The Savage wound, he rowzes at the Smart, / He foams, he roars […]

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   • 1871, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter 12, in Little Men: […], Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC:

     Of course Tommy came to grief, tumbled upon a hornets’ nest and got stung; but being used to woe, he bore the smart manfully […]

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   • 1948, Graham Greene, chapter 1, in The Heart of the Matter‎, London: Heinemann, Book One, Part One, section 8, page 42:

     The smart of his wounded hand woke Scobie at two in the morning.

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2. Mental pain or suffering; grief; affliction.

   Synonyms: anguish, torment; see also Thesaurus:distress

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 101:

     Mishaps are maistred by aduice discrete, / And counsell mitigates the greatest smart; / Found neuer help, who neuer would his hurts impart.

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   • 1624 (date written), John Milton, “On the Death of a Fair Infant Dying of a Cough”, in Poems, &c. upon Several Occasions, London: […] Tho[mas] Dring […], published 1673, →OCLC, page 20:

     But oh why didst thou not stay here below / To bless us with thy heav’n lov’d innocence, […] / To stand ’twixt us and our deserved smart / But thou canst best perform that office where thou art.

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   • 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter VIII, in Great Expectations […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 130:

     I was so humiliated, hurt, spurned, offended, angry, sorry,—I cannot hit upon the right name for the smart—God knows what its name was,—that tears started to my eyes.

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   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 9, in The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN:

     […] Bertrand said, ‘No, you bloody idiot, do you think I drink this? I want mineral water.’ The girl recoiled for just a second at the smart of his tone […] and then apologized with steely insincerity.

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3. Clipping of smart moneyCategory:English clippings#SMART.

   Antonym: dumb money

4. (slangCategory:English slang#SMART, datedCategory:English dated terms#SMART) A dandy; one who is smart in dress; one who is brisk, vivacious, or clever.

   Synonyms: fop, macaroni; see also Thesaurus:dandy

   • 1742, Henry Fielding, “In which the Gentleman Relates the History of His Life”, in The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews, and of His Friend Mr. Abraham Adams. […], volume II, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book III, page 36:

     […] I reſolved to quit all further Converſation vvith Beaus and Smarts of all kinds, […]

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Inflection

Derived terms

• oversmart

Usage notes

• Other than in the saying met smart, the word is nowadays considered to be dated.

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• Negerhollands: smert, smerte

Declension

Derived terms

• smartklokke
• smarttelefon

Derived terms

• smartklokke
• smarttelefon

Declension

Derived terms

• gatusmart
• smartskaft