smutching
smutching is the present participle and gerund of smutch.
Meaning of smutch
Verb
smutch (third-person singular simple present smutches, present participle smutching, simple past and past participle smutched)
- To soil, stain or smudge.
- Why, that’s my bawcock. What, hast smutch’d thy nose?
They say it is a copy out of mine.c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- Why, that’s my bawcock. What, hast smutch’d thy nose?
Noun
smutching (uncountable)
- Snuff.
- The Spaniards and Iriſh take [Tobacco] moſt in Powder or Smutching, and it mightily refreſhes the Brain, and I believe there's as much taken this way in Ireland, at [sic] there is in Pipes in England: One ſhall commonly ſee the Serving-maid upon the Waſhing-block, and the Swain upon the Plow-ſhare...1688, James Howell, “To Henry Hopkins, Eſquire.” (chapter VII), in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ, Fourth edition, volume III, "A Third Volume of Familiar LETTERS, Of a Freſher Date.", page 404
Questions about smutching
- What does smutching mean?
- Smutching means snuff.
- What is smutching the present participle and gerund of?
- Smutching is the present participle and gerund of smutch.
- What part of speech is smutching?
- Smutching is a noun.
Words near smutching in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: smutching (page history and authors); smutch (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: “smutching.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/smutching. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.