Word.ws English Dictionary

smart as paint

smart as paint adjective: very smart in appearance.

Adjective

smart as paint (not comparable)

  1. (simile) Very smart in appearance.
  2. (simile) Very intelligent.
    • 'But now, you look here: you're young, you are, but you're as smart as paint. I see that when I set my eyes on you, and I'll talk to you like a man.'1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC
    • 'You have to be as smart as paint to keep this Puddin' in order. He's that artful, lawyers couldn't manage him.'1918, Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding

Questions about smart as paint

What does smart as paint mean?
Smart as paint means very smart in appearance.
What part of speech is smart as paint?
Smart as paint is an adjective.

Words near smart as paint in the dictionary

  1. smart appliance
  2. smart appliances
  3. smart arse
  4. smart arses
  5. smart as a whip
  6. smart as paint
  7. smart ass
  8. smart asses
  9. smart band
  10. smart bands
  11. smart beta

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: smart as paint (page history and authors). 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-smart as paint.ogg.

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