Word.ws English Dictionary

smug

UK/smʌɡ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/smɐɡ/

smug adjective: irritatingly pleased with oneself; offensively self-complacent, self-satisfied.

Adjective

smug (comparative smugger, superlative smuggest)

  1. Irritatingly pleased with oneself; offensively self-complacent, self-satisfied.
    • Kate looked extremely smug this morning.
  2. Showing smugness; showing self-complacency, self-satisfaction.
    • a smug look on her face
  3. (obsolete) Studiously neat or nice, especially in dress; spruce; affectedly precise; smooth and prim.
    • They be so smug and smooth.1556, Raphe Robynson, More’s Utopia: The English Translation thereof
    • the smug and scanty draperies of his style1828, Thomas De Quincey, “Elements of Rhetoric”, in Blackwood's Magazine

Verb

smug (third-person singular simple present smugs, present participle smugging, simple past and past participle smugged)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To make smug, or spruce.
    • Thus said, he smug'd his beard, and stroked up fair.1612, Michael Drayton, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned...
  2. (intransitive) to adopt an offensively self-complacent expression.
    • Hearing a sound of strife, a Christian in the Orient asked his Dragoman the cause of it.
      "The Buddhists are cutting Mohammedan throats," the Dragoman replied, with oriental composure.
      "I did not know," remarked the Christian, with scientific interest, "that that would make so much noise."
      "The...1899 Ambrose Bierce: Fantastic Fables.
  3. (obsolete, slang, transitive) To seize; to confiscate.
  4. (obsolete, slang, transitive) To hush up.

Noun

smug (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) The smuggling trade.
    • Have not they some term by which they distinguish the illicit trade? — They usually call it the Smug-pigeon.1830, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on the East India Company, Report ... China Trade (page 397)
    • The smug-boats have been called centipedes by the Europeans, on account of the great number of oars, with which, like legs, they walk the water.1838, Charles Toogood Downing, The Stranger in China, page 66

smug meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

smug in Hindi

स्मग

smug in Tamil

ஸ்மக்

smug in Marathi

स्मग

smug in Urdu

چکنا, خود مطمعئن, قبضہ کرنا
More languagesFewer languages
smug in Bengali
আত্মতুষ্ট, দম্ভপূর্ণ
smug in Telugu
స్మగ్
smug in Malayalam
ഗർവ്വുള്ളത്, വെടിപ്പുള്ളത്, അഴകുള്ളത്, മോടിയായത്
smug in Kannada
ತನ್ಪೆರ‍್ಮೆಯುಳ್ಳ, ತನ್ತಣಿವಿನಲ್ಲಿರುವ, ನೆಮ್ಮದಿಯ, ಆತ್ಮತೃಪ್ತ
smug in Punjabi
ਮਨਮੌਜੀ manmaujī
smug in Odia
ସ୍ମୁଗ୍, ସ୍ମଗ୍, ସ୍ମୁଗ
smug in Nepali
स्मग, स्मग गर्न

Examples of smug in a sentence

  • If you don't put away that smug little smile I swear you'll get it right in the teeth.
  • For one thing, she always looked far too smug at the outraged expressions on the magistras’ faces.
  • The last thing I feel like is squeezing into Lycra and standing next to smug matcha-drinking gymfluencers.

All 19 example sentences with smug

Synonyms of smug

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of smug

Forms of smug

Adjective
comparativesmugger
superlativesmuggest
Verb
third-person singular presentsmugs
present participlesmugging
past participlesmugged
pastsmugged

Origin of smug

Originally "spruce, neat," from Low German smuk (“pretty”), from Middle Low German smuk (“lithe, delicate, neat, trim”), although the g of the English word is not easily explained. The ultimate source should be Proto-West Germanic *smeugan (“to crawl, creep”). From the Low German derived also North Frisian smok, Danish smuk and Swedish smukk (now obsolete or dialectal). Compare also Middle High German gesmuc (“ornament”) and smücken (“to dress, to adorn”), both ultimately from smiegen (“to press to, insert, wrap, to nestle”), hence German schmiegen, Schmuck and schmücken. The adjective schmuck, however, was borrowed from Low German. See smock for more.

Words formed from smug

Words that rhyme with smug

23 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about smug

What does smug mean?
Smug means irritatingly pleased with oneself; offensively self-complacent, self-satisfied.
What is smug in Hindi?
Smug in Hindi is स्मग. See Smug meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is smug?
Smug can be an adjective, a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce smug?
Smug is pronounced /smʌɡ/ (UK).

Words near smug in the dictionary

  1. smudgily
  2. smudginess
  3. smudging
  4. smudgings
  5. smudgy
  6. smug
  7. smugfest
  8. smugfests
  9. smugged
  10. smugger
  11. smuggeries

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: smug (page history and authors); smug (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); smug (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); smug (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); smug (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); smug (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); smug (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); smug (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); smug (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); smug (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); smug (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-smug.ogg.

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