Word.ws English Dictionary

smart off

smart off verb: to show disrespect verbally; to smartmouth.

Verb

smart off (third-person singular simple present smarts off, present participle smarting off, simple past and past participle smarted off)

  1. (intransitive, slang) To show disrespect verbally; to smartmouth.
    • He despised being away from the rest of the student body and would occasionally act out in defiance by smarting off or by being uncooperative.2002, Ken Lockette, "Surviving the Soviet Legacy, in A World of Teaching: Personal Journeys Through the World's English-Speaking Classrooms, eds. John A. Hansen, Evan M. Smith, page 44
    • It's not my job to straighten out his every mess, especially since he seems to like playing the wise guy and smarting off every chance he gets.2005, Jack Myers, Row House Days: Tales from a Southwest Philadelphia Childhood, page 264

Forms of smart off

third-person singular presentsmarts off
present participlesmarting off
past participlesmarted off
pastsmarted off

Questions about smart off

What does smart off mean?
Smart off means to show disrespect verbally; to smartmouth.
What part of speech is smart off?
Smart off is a verb.
What is the past tense of smart off?
The past tense of smart off is smarted off.

Words near smart off in the dictionary

  1. smart mob
  2. smart mobs
  3. smart money
  4. smart motorway
  5. smart motorways
  6. smart off
  7. smart phone
  8. smart phones
  9. smart pill
  10. smart pills
  11. smart plug

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: smart off (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-smart off.ogg.

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