Word.ws English Dictionary

smeddum

smeddum noun: fine powder; flour.

Noun

smeddum (uncountable)

  1. Fine powder; flour.
  2. The powder or finest part of ground malt.
  3. Smitham.
  4. (Scotland) Zest, energy; pluck; sagacity; quickness of apprehension; gumption; spirit; mettle.
    • “Don’t like the name, don’t like it. There’s no smeddum to it. Besides, it makes me think of my Aunt Jinny. She called her three girls Faith, Hope, and Charity. Faith didn’t believe in anything—Hope was a born pessimist—and Charity was a miser.[…]”1919, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter XVI, in Rainbow Valley
    • maybe there were better folk far in Segget, but few enough with smeddum like his.1933, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Cloud Howe (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 271
  5. (Northern England, UK, dialectal) Ore small enough to pass through the wire bottom of a sieve.
  6. (Northern England, UK, dialectal) A layer of clay or shale between two beds of coal.

Forms of smeddum

alternative formsmitham
alternative formsmithum
alternative formsmiddum

Origin of smeddum

From earlier smitham, smytham, from Middle English smedma, from Old English smedma, smeodema, smedema (“fine flour, pollen meal, meal”).

Words formed from smeddum

  • smiddum-tails

Questions about smeddum

What does smeddum mean?
Smeddum means fine powder; flour.
What part of speech is smeddum?
Smeddum is a noun.

Words near smeddum in the dictionary

  1. smectogens
  2. Smectymnuan
  3. Smectymnuans
  4. Smectymnuus
  5. Smeddle
  6. smeddum
  7. Smedley
  8. Smedleys
  9. smee
  10. smeech
  11. smeeched

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: smeddum (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: “smeddum.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/smeddum. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.