smart

• (General American) IPA^(key): /smɑɹt/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /smɑːt/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)t

From Middle English smerten, from Old English smeortan (“to smart”), from Proto-Germanic *smertaną (“to hurt, ache”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)merd- (“to bite, sting”). Cognate with Scots smert, Dutch smarten, German schmerzen, Danish smerte, Swedish smärta.

smart (third-person singular simple present smarts, present participle smarting, simple past smarted or (obsolete) smort, past participle smarted or (obsolete) smorten)

1. (intransitive) To hurt or sting.

   After being hit with a pitch, the batter exclaimed "Ouch, my arm smarts!"

   • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula Chapter 21

     He moved convulsively, and as he did so, said, "I'll be quiet, Doctor. Tell them to take off the strait waistcoat. I have had a terrible dream, and it has left me so weak that I cannot move. What's wrong with my face? It feels all swollen, and it smarts dreadfully."

2. (transitive) To cause a smart or sting in.
   • T. Adams

     A goad that […] smarts the flesh.

3. (intransitive) To feel a pungent pain of mind; to feel sharp pain or grief; to suffer; to feel the sting of evil.
   • Alexander Pope

     No creature smarts so little as a fool.

   • Bible, Proverbs xi. 15

     He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it.

   • 1790, Ann Ward Radcliffe, chapter 11, in A Sicilian Romance‎, HTML edition:

     Meanwhile the Abate exulted in successful vengeance, and the marquis smarted beneath the stings of disappointment.

• arsesmart
• besmart
• nosesmart
• smartful
• smarting
• smartweed

From Middle English smerte, smert, smarte, smart, from Old English smeart (“smarting, smart, painful”), from Proto-Germanic *smartaz (“hurting, aching”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)merd- (“to bite, sting”). Cognate with Scots smert (“painful, smart”), Old Frisian smert (“sharp, painful”).

smart (comparative smarter or more smart, superlative smartest or most smart)

1. Exhibiting social ability or cleverness.
   • 1811, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, chapter 19

     I always preferred the church, and I still do. But that was not smart enough for my family. They recommended the army. That was a great deal too smart for me.

2. (informal) Exhibiting intellectual knowledge, such as that found in books.
3. (often in combination) Equipped with intelligent behaviour (digital/computer technology).

   smart bomb, smart car

   smartcard, smartphone

4. Good-looking.

   a smart outfit

5. Cleverly shrewd and humorous in a way that may be rude and disrespectful.

   He became tired of his daughter's sarcasm and smart remarks.

   Don't get smart with me!

   • Young

     Who, for the poor renown of being smart / Would leave a sting within a brother's heart?

   • Addison

     a sentence or two, […] which I thought very smart

6. Sudden and intense.
   • Clarendon

     smart skirmishes, in which many fell

   • 1860 July 9, Henry David Thoreau, journal entry, from Thoreau's bird-lore, Francis H. Allen (editor), Houghton Mifflin (Boston, 1910), Thoreau on Birds: notes on New England birds from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau, Beacon Press, (Boston, 1993), page 239:

     There is a smart shower at 5 P.M., and in the midst of it a hummingbird is busy about the flowers in the garden, unmindful of it, though you would think that each big drop that struck him would be a serious accident.

7. Causing sharp pain; stinging.
   • Shakespeare

     How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience.

8. Sharp; keen; poignant.

   a smart pain

9. (US, Southern, dated) Intense in feeling; painful. Used usually with the adverb intensifier right.

   He raised his voice, and it hurt her feelings right smart.

   That cast on his leg chaffs him right smart.

10. (archaic) Efficient; vigorous; brilliant.
    • Dryden

      The stars shine smarter.

11. (archaic) Pretentious; showy; spruce.

    a smart gown

12. (archaic) Brisk; fresh.

    a smart breeze

• (exhibiting social ability): bright, capable, sophisticated, witty
• (exhibiting intellectual knowledge): cultivated, educated, learned, see also Thesaurus:learned
• (good-looking): attractive, chic, stylish, handsome
• (cleverly and/or sarcastically humorous): silly

• (exhibiting social ability): backward, banal, boorish, dull, inept
• (exhibiting intellectual knowledge): ignorant, uncultivated, simple
• (good-looking): garish, outré, tacky

From Middle English smerte, from smerten (“to smart”). See above. Cognate with Scots smert, Dutch smart, Low German smart, German Schmerz, Danish smerte, Swedish smärta. More above.

smart (plural smarts)

1. A sharp, quick, lively pain; a sting.
   • 1567, Arthur Golding (translator), The XV Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, entytuled Metamorphosis, London: William Seres, Book , p. 51,

     […] the bodie had no smart

     Of any wound: it was the minde that felt the cruell stings.

   • 1716, Alexander Pope (translator), The Iliad of Homer, London: Bernard Lintot, Volume 2, Book 5, lines 176-178, p. 25,

     If chance some Shepherd with a distant Dart

     The Savage wound, he rowzes at the Smart,

     He foams, he roars […]

   • 1871, Louisa May Alcott, Little Men, Chapter 12,

     Of course Tommy came to grief, tumbled upon a hornets’ nest and got stung; but being used to woe, he bore the smart manfully […]

   • 1948, Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter, London: Heinemann, Book One, Part One, Chapter 1, section 8, p. 42,

     The smart of his wounded hand woke Scobie at two in the morning.

2. Mental pain or suffering; grief; affliction.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, London: William Ponsonbie, Book 1, Canto 7, p. 101,

     Mishaps are maistred by aduice discrete,

     And counsell mitigates the greatest smart;

     Found neuer help, who neuer would his hurts impart.

   • 1673, John Milton, “Anno aetatis 17. On the Death of a fair Infant dying of a Cough” in Poems, &c. upon Several Occasions Both English and Latin, London: Thomas Dring, p. 20,

     But oh why didst thou not stay here below

     To bless us with thy heav’n lov’d innocence, […]

     To stand ’twixt us and our deserved smart

     But thou canst best perform that office where thou art.

   • 1861, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, Chapter 8,

     I was so humiliated, hurt, spurned, offended, angry, sorry,—I cannot hit upon the right name for the smart—God knows what its name was,—that tears started to my eyes.

   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty, London: Picador, Chapter 9, p. 250,

     […] Bertrand said, ‘No, you bloody idiot, do you think I drink this? I want mineral water.’ The girl recoiled for just a second at the smart of his tone […] and then apologized with steely insincerity.

3. Smart-money.
4. (slang, dated) A dandy; one who is smart in dress; one who is brisk, vivacious, or clever.
   • 1742, Henry Fielding, Joseph Andrews, London: A. Millar, 3rd edition, 1743, Volume 2, Book 3, Chapter 3, p. 27,

     […] I resolved to quit all further Conversation with Beaus and Smarts of every kind […]

• smartful

• MSTAR, marts, stram, tarms, trams

From English smart

smart (neuter smart, plural and definite singular attributive smarte, comparative smartere, superlative (predicative) smartest, superlative (attributive) smarteste)

1. (of a solution, contraption, plan etc.) well thought-out, neat
2. snazzy, fashionable, dapper

• smert (dialectal)

• IPA^(key): /smɑrt/

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• Rhymes: -ɑrt

smart f or m (plural smarten)

1. pain, sorrow, grief

• gedeelde smart is halve smart
• met smart
• smartengeld

From English smart

smart (neuter singular smart, definite singular and plural smarte, comparative smartere, indefinite superlative smartest, definite superlative smarteste)

1. clever (mentally sharp or bright)
2. smart

• smartklokke

• “smart” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From English smart

smart (neuter singular smart, definite singular and plural smarte, comparative smartare, indefinite superlative smartast, definite superlative smartaste)

1. clever (mentally sharp or bright)
2. smart

• smartklokke

• “smart” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

smart (invariable)

1. smart (with smart technology)

Borrowed from English smart.

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smart (comparative smartare, superlative smartast)

1. smart; clever