smut
/smʌt/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northern England/smʊt/
smut noun: soot.
Noun
smut (countable and uncountable, plural smuts)
- Soot.
- Synonyms:
- filth
- A flake of ash or soot.
- She reached it soon after half-past two. She found its gloomy nineteenth-century façade, black with the smuts of ninety years, a little daunting, and mounted its broad steps in some trepidation. But she rang the bell hard and knocked firmly.1915, Edgar Jepson, “The Reluctant Duke”, in Happy Pollyooly: The Rich Little Poor Girl, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 135
- “You can rely on me!” Varya said, still more earnestly and enthusiastically, still leaning heavily on the counter, noticing briefly and forgetting at once that her bare elbow had crushed a stray smut from the Primus mender's booth.1989, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, translated by Harry Willetts, August 1914, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 56
- Sexually vulgar material; something that is sexual in a dirty way; pornographic material.
- The semiology of smut remains fairly unchanging: pasties, thongs, fetishwear-lite, simulated masturbation with the most unlikely of objects.2013 October 9, Suzanne Moore, “Sex is everywhere you look, but the semiology of smut never changes”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
- It is no use to say, well, your anthrostate requires smut to be shielded, but your neighbor’s antrhostate^([sic]) says he can show anything anywhere. The neighbor’s behavior affects you, so you have to have the same rules.2014 June 9, Hans Noel, “Polystate: A Not-So-Bad Book About a Very Bad Idea”, in Washington Monthly
- Synonyms:
- filth
- Obscene language; ribaldry; obscenity.
- He does not stand upon decency […] but will talk smut, though a priest and his mother be in the room.2026 October 12 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “MONDAY, May 25, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 39; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New...
- Any of a range of fungi, mostly Ustilaginomycetes, that cause plant disease in grasses, including cereal crops; the disease so caused.
- If the petals of your garden dianthus (pinks) are stained brown, they too are victims of similar smut.2021 June 16, Phil Gates, “Country diary: in the fight to survive, red campion is a surprise battleground”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
- Bad, soft coal containing earthy matter, found in the immediate locality of faults.
- A copper boiler.
Verb
smut (third-person singular simple present smuts, present participle smutting, simple past and past participle smutted)
- To stain (or be stained) with soot or other dirt.
- it bears a very good Crop , and seldom smuts1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC
- But the Nis did not forget it to the maids; for the following Sunday when they were going to the dance, be contrived, unknown to them, to smut their faces all over, so that when they got up to dance, every one that was there burst out a laughing at them.1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 231
- To taint (grain, etc.) with the smut fungus.
- Mildew also falls upon Corn, and smuts it1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted...
- To become tainted by the smut fungus.
- It smutted to a far greater degree than the year before, say three fourths, or more. I obtained but little more than the seed sown, and that was handsome wheat. This failure I imputed to the same supposed cause which operated the last year.1836, New England Farmer, volume 14, page 313
- To clear of the smut fungus.
- to smut grain for the mill
smut meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Kannada
smut in Tamil
- கரிப்பூட்டை, கரிப்பூட்டை நோய்
smut in Urdu
- غلیظ گفتگو, کالا دھبہ, کالک
smut in Bengali
- কালি, নোংরা, অশ্লীলতা
smut in Kannada
- ಇಲ್ಲಣ, ಮಸಿ, ಕಲೆ, ಕರೆ, ಕೊಳೆ, ಅಸಭ್ಯ ಪುಸ್ತಕ
Examples of smut in a sentence
- She really needed to read less AO3 smut before bed.
- "Shut up and bring on the smut, Ronnie!" someone shouted.
- Sterling himself, though he had the most picturesque and inimitable vocabulary of vituperation, was highly squeamish about ordinary smut or profanity.
Synonyms of smut
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of smut
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | smuts |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | smuts |
| present participle | smutting |
| past participle | smutted |
| past | smutted |
Origin of smut
From Middle English smutten (“to defile, debase”), related to German Schmutz (“filth, dirt, smut”) and schmutzen (“to make dirty, stain”). Doublet of schmutz. Compare also Old English smitta (“smear; blot; mark; stain; pollution”), Old English besmītan (“to besmut; defile; dirty; pollute; contaminate”).
Words formed from smut
Phrases with smut
Words that rhyme with smut
Questions about smut
- What does smut mean?
- Smut means soot.
- What is smut in Tamil?
- Smut in Tamil is கரிப்பூட்டை, கரிப்பூட்டை நோய். See Smut meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is smut?
- Smut can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce smut?
- Smut is pronounced /smʌt/.
- What is the plural of smut?
- The plural of smut is smuts.
Words near smut in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: smut (page history and authors); smut (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); smut (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); smut (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); smut (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-smut.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-smut.wav.
Cite this entry: “smut.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/smut. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.