Word.ws English Dictionary

smarting off

smarting off is the present participle and gerund of smart off.

Meaning of smart off

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

Questions about smarting off

What is smarting off the present participle and gerund of?
Smarting off is the present participle and gerund of smart off.

Words near smarting off in the dictionary

  1. Smarthas
  2. Smartian
  3. smartie
  4. smarties
  5. smarting
  6. smarting off
  7. smartingly
  8. smartings
  9. smartish
  10. Smartism
  11. smartle

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: smarting off (page history and authors); 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.

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