Word.ws English Dictionary

smack

/smæk/

smack noun: a distinct flavor, especially if slight.

smack: a distinct flavor, especially if slight
Image: Carlton Theodore Chapman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

smack (countable and uncountable, plural smacks)

  1. A distinct flavor, especially if slight.
    • rice pudding with a smack of cinnamon
    • I did not call him fool, and vex my friend, / But quietly allowed experiment, / Encouraged him to dust his drink, and now / Grate lignum vitæ now bruise so-called grains / Of Paradise, and now, for perfume, pour / Distilment rare, the rose of Jericho, / Holy-thorn, passion-flower, and what know I?...1873 January 23, Robert Browning, “Part IV”, in Red Cotton Night-Cap Country: Or Turf and Towers, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 245
  2. A slight trace of something; a smattering.
    • He was not sailorly, and yet he had a smack of the sea about him too.1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC
    • I like my cousins in Holland immensely, but I feel more sib to the Northerners. Your description of Lofoten is fine. I can see them. They must be enchanting in their way, cod's head and tails or no. There is a fine eau de Javelle smack about a Dutch canal, by the way, that takes[…]1906, Oliver Elton, Frederick York Powell: A Life and a Selection from His Letters and Occasional Writings, page 249
  3. (slang, uncountable) Synonym of heroin.
    • Claude overdosed on smack in a Chicago flophouse three years later.2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 191
    Synonyms:
    heroin
  4. (Northern England) A form of fried potato; a scallop.

Verb (1)

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

  1. (transitive) To get the flavor of.
    • He soon smacked the taste of physic hidden in this sweetness.1827, Thomas Carlyle (translator), Johann August Musæus, "Melechsala" (1782-86); in German Romance I. 175
  2. (intransitive) To have a particular taste; used with of.
    • 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.1820-25, Charles Lamb, Essays of Elia
  3. (intransitive) To indicate or suggest something; used with of.
    • Her reckless behavior smacks of pride.
    • All sects, all ages, smack of this vice.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    Synonyms:
    reek

Noun (2)

smack (plural smacks)

  1. A small sailing vessel, commonly rigged as a sloop, used chiefly in the coasting and fishing trade and often called a fishing smack.
    • He had sung when he was by himself in the old days and he had sung at night sometimes when he was alone steering on his watch in the smacks or in the turtle boats.1952 September 1, Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 39
    • But without Union reinforcement, as many men as could be packed into a mere fishing smack could take the fort, Meigs wrote to Washington.2009, Simon Schama, The American Future: A History
  2. (collective) A group of jellyfish.
    • In November 2007, a 16-square-kilometer smack of jellyfish at a depth of 35 feet invaded the Northern Salmon Company, Northern Ireland's only salmon farm, killing more than 100,000 fish at a cost of more than $2 million.2017, Bruce E. Johansen, Climate Change: An Encyclopedia of Science, Society, and Solutions, Bloomsbury Publishing
    • As we paddled we passed a smack of jellyfish2008, Sean Stanley, Etcetera and Otherwise, Tightrope Books, page 55

Noun (3)

smack (plural smacks)

  1. A sharp blow; a slap. See also: spank.
  2. The sound of a loud kiss.
    • he took the bride about the neck. And kissed her lips with such a clamorous smack.c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • Then he told them of the princess, how she came to him, and how much she had to kiss him to get the whistle, when nobody saw or heard it over in the wood - "I must get on with these lies if the vat is to be full," said Ashiepattle, - so he told them about the queen, how stingy she was with the...1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 178
  3. A quick, sharp noise, as of the lips when suddenly separated, or of a whip.

Verb (2)

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

  1. To slap or hit someone.
  2. To make a smacking sound.
    • A horse neighed, and a whip smacked, there was a whistle, and the sound of a cart wheel.1832, Benjamin Disraeli, Contarini Fleming
  3. (especially outside of North America) To strike a child (usually on the buttocks) as a form of discipline. (normal U.S. and Canadian term spank)
  4. To wetly separate the lips, making a noise, after tasting something or in expectation of a treat.
    • 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.1763, Robert Lloyd, “A Familiar Epistle”, in St. James Magazine
  5. To kiss with a close compression of the lips, so as to make a sound when they separate.

Adverb

smack (not comparable)

  1. As if with a smack or slap; smartly; sharply.
    • Right smack in the middle of getting ready to leave.
    • She fell smack on her face.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: SMACK

SMACK

  1. An Apache-based solution stack consisting of Spark, Mesos, Akka, Cassandra, and Kafka.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Smack

Smack (plural Smacks)

  1. A surname from German.

smack meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

smack in Hindi

to slap someone
थप्पड़ मारना thappaṛ mārnā

smack in Tamil

ஸ்மாக்

smack in Marathi

a smack, rap, or blow
चापट cāpaṭ

smack in Urdu

اسمیک
More languagesFewer languages
smack in Bengali
স্ম্যাক, স্মেক, স্ম্যাক করা
smack in Telugu
స్మ్యాక్, స్మాక్
smack in Malayalam
സ്മാക്ക്
smack in Kannada
ಬಲವಾದ ಹೊಡೆತ, ಅಪ್ಪಳಿಸುವಿಕೆ, ಜೋರಾದ ಕೀರಲು ಶಬ್ದ, ಸಣ್ಣ ಹಾಯಿದೋಣಿ
smack in Punjabi
ਸਮੈਕ, ਸ੍ਮੈਕ
smack in Gujarati
સ્મેક, સ્મૅક, સ્મૈક
smack in Odia
ସ୍ମାକ୍, ସ୍ମ୍ଯ଼ାକ୍, ସ୍ମାକ୍ କରିବା
smack in Nepali
स्म्याक, स्मैक, स्मेक

Examples of smack in a sentence

  • But take it: if the smack is sour / The better for the embittered hour; […]1896, A[lfred] E[dward] Housman, “(please specify the poem number)”, in A Shropshire Lad, London: The Richards Press, →OCLC:
  • Smacks of jellyfish are like genderless gangs.2017, Heather Davis, editor, Desire Change: Contemporary Feminist Art in Canada, McGill-Queen's University Press, page 61:

All 40 example sentences with smack

Synonyms of smack

Forms of smack

Noun
pluralsmacks
Verb
third-person singular presentsmacks
present participlesmacking
past participlesmacked
pastsmacked
Proper noun
pluralSmacks

Past tense of smack: smacked

Plural of smack: smacks

Origin of smack

The noun is from Middle English smac, smak, smacke, from Old English smæc, smæċċ (“taste, smatch”), from Proto-West Germanic *smakku, from Proto-Germanic *smakkuz (“a taste”), from Proto-Indo-European *smegʰ-, *smeg- (“to taste”). The verb is from Middle English smaken. Doublet of smatch (obsolete, “taste”; q.v.), from Old English smæċċan (“to taste, smack”). Cognate with Scots smak (“scent, smell, taste, flavour”), Saterland Frisian Smoak (“taste”), West Frisian smaak (“taste”), Dutch smaak (“taste”), German Schmack, Geschmack (“taste”), Danish smag (“taste”), Swedish and Norwegian smak (“taste”), Norwegian smekke.

From Middle Low German smack (Low German Schmacke, Schmaake (“small ship”)) or Dutch smak, perhaps ultimately related to smakken, imitative of the sails' noise.

From Middle English *smakken, from Middle Dutch smacken (modern Dutch smakken (“to smack, pop, hurl down, crash”)), from Old Dutch *smakkon, from Proto-West Germanic *smak(k)ōn, ultimately of imitative origin. Cognate West Frisian smakke, Middle Low German smacken (“to hit, hurl, fling”), Plautdietsch schmaksen (“to smack the lips”), German schmatzen (“eat noisily”), regional German schmacken, Schmackes (“vigour”) (compare Swedish smak (“slap”), the first part of Saterland Frisian smakmuulje (“to smack, slap”)).

Words formed from smack

Phrases with smack

Words that rhyme with smack

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about smack

What does smack mean?
Smack means a distinct flavor, especially if slight.
What is smack in Hindi?
Smack in Hindi is थप्पड़ मारना (thappaṛ mārnā). See Smack meaning in Hindi.
How do you use smack in a sentence?
But take it: if the smack is sour / The better for the embittered hour; […]
What part of speech is smack?
Smack can be a noun, a verb, an adverb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce smack?
Smack is pronounced /smæk/.
What is the plural of smack?
The plural of smack is smacks.

Words near smack in the dictionary

  1. smaak
  2. smaaked
  3. smaaking
  4. smaaks
  5. SMAC
  6. smack
  7. smack around
  8. smack bang
  9. smack dab
  10. smack down
  11. smack in the face

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: smack (page history and authors); SMACK (page history and authors); Smack (page history and authors); smack (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); चापट (Marathi) (page history and authors); smack (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); smack (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); smack (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); smack (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); smack (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); smack (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); smack (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); smack (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); smack (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-smack.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-smack.wav.

Cite this entry: “smack.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/smack. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.