smart

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

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• 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, chapter 21, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, OCLC 688657546:

     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.
   • a. 1652, Thomas Adams, Faith's Encouragement

     A goad that […] smarts the flesh.

3. (intransitive) To feel a pungent pain of mind; to feel sharp pain or grief; be punished severely; to feel the sting of evil.
   • 1735, [Alexander] Pope, An Epistle from Mr. Pope, to Dr. Arbuthnot, London; Dublin: Re-printed by George Faulkner, bookseller, […], OCLC 6363280:

     No creature smarts so little as a fool.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Proverbs 11:15:

     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 smert, 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.

   Synonyms: bright, capable, sophisticated, witty

   Antonyms: backward, banal, boorish, dull, inept

   • 1811, [Jane Austen], chapter 19, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], OCLC 20599507:

     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.

   Synonyms: cultivated, educated, learned; see also Thesaurus:learned

   Antonyms: ignorant, uncultivated, simple

3. (often in combination) Equipped with intelligent behaviour (digital/computer technology).

   smart car

   smartcard

   smartphone

4. Good-looking; well dressed; fine; fashionable.

   Synonyms: attractive, chic, dapper, stylish, handsome

   Antonyms: garish, outré, tacky

   a smart outfit

   You look smart in that business suit.

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

   Synonym: silly

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

   Don't get smart with me!

   • 1728, Edward Young, Satire

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

   • 1711 October 1 (Gregorian calendar)​, Joseph Addison; Richard Steele [et al.], “THURSDAY, September 20, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 175; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, OCLC 191120697:

     I played a sentence or two at my butt, which I thought very smart, when my ill genius, who I verily believed inspired him purely for my destruction, suggested to him such a reply

6. Sudden and intense.
   • 1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, “(please specify |book=I to XVI)”, in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the Theater, published 1707, OCLC 937919305:

     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.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene i]:

     How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience.

8. Sharp; keen; poignant.

   a smart pain

9. (Southern US, 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.
    • 1697, Virgil, “Georgic 1”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 403869432:

      The stars shine smarter.

11. (archaic) Pretentious; showy; spruce.

    a smart gown

12. (archaic) Brisk; fresh.

    a smart breeze

• → Danish: smart
• → German: smart
• → Norwegian:
  • Norwegian Bokmål: smart
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: smart
• → Swedish: smart

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, Ovid, “(please specify the book number or chapter)”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis, […], London: […] Willyam Seres […], OCLC 1085261494:

     […] the bodie had no smart / Of any wound: it was the minde that felt the cruell stings.

   • 1715–1720, Homer; [Alexander] Pope, transl., “Book 5”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], OCLC 670734254, lines 176-178, page 25:

     If chance some Shepherd with a distant Dart / The Savage wound, he rowzes at the Smart, / He foams, he roars […]

   • 1871, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter 12, in Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo’s Boys, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, OCLC 634069:

     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, chapter 1, in The Heart of the Matter, London: Heinemann, Book One, Part One, section 8, page 42:

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

2. Mental pain or suffering; grief; affliction.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, page 101:

     Mishaps are maistred by aduice discrete, / And counsell mitigates the greatest smart; / Found neuer help, who neuer would his hurts impart.

   • 1624 (date written)​, John Milton, “On the Death of a Fair Infant Dying of a Cough”, in Poems, &c. upon Several Occasions, London: […] Tho[mas] Dring […], OCLC 1050806759, page 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.

   • 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter VIII, in Great Expectations […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, OCLC 3359935, page 130:

     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, chapter 9, in The Line of Beauty, New York: Bloomsbury, OCLC 1036692193:

     […] 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.
   • 1743, Henry Fielding, chapter III, in The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews, and His Friend Mr. Abraham Adams. […], volume II, 3rd edition, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 1157347657, book III, page 27:

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

• smartful

• MSTAR, marts, stram, tarms, trams

Borrowed 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

• oversmart

• smert (dialectal)

From Middle Dutch smarte, from Proto-Germanic *smertaną. Cf. German Schmerz, English smart.

• IPA^(key): /smɑrt/

• Audio

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• Hyphenation: smart
• Rhymes: -ɑrt

smart f (plural smarten)

1. pain, sorrow, grief

• Other than in the saying met smart, the word is nowadays considered to be dated.

• gedeelde smart is halve smart
• met smart
• smartengeld

• Negerhollands: smert, smerte

Borrowed from English smart, 19th c.

• IPA^(key): /smaːɐ̯t/, /smaʁt/

• (file)

smart (strong nominative masculine singular smarter, comparative smarter, superlative am smartesten)

1. smart (exhibiting social ability or cleverness)

   Synonyms: aufgeweckt, clever, gewitzt, pfiffig

   • 1862, “Amerikanische Zwangsmaßregel”, in Die Gartenlaube‎, number 20, page 320:

     Während in New York und andern östlichen Städten der einfachste kürzeste Proceßgang darin besteht, ist in vielen der westlichen Staaten ein „smarter“ Miether im Stande, fast noch ein Jahr nach geschehener Aufkündigung ein Haus zu bewohnen, ohne nur einen Pfennig Miethe zu zahlen.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

   • 1910, Walther Kabel, Der schlafende Fakir‎:

     Da vertraute ich mich meinem Chef, Herrn William Hawkens, an, der ein viel zu smarter Geschäftsmann ist, als daß er nicht das nötige Verständnis für diese unter Umständen recht einträgliche Idee gehabt hätte.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

   • 2017, Rechtsanwalt Dr. Thomas M. Grupp, Maître en droit (Aix-Marseille III), “Entwicklungen im Umfeld einer Rechts- und Gerichtsstandswahl in Zeiten von Brexit”, in Europäische Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsrecht (EuZW)‎, number 24, page 977:

     Die ersichtlichen Bemühungen, einen smarteren Ausstieg aus der EU zu erreichen, decken sich mit den beiden eingangs schon erwähnten Positionspapieren, die von der britischen Regierung im August 2017 zu Themen einer grenzüberschreitenden zivilgerichtlichen Zusammenarbeit und zur Rechtsdurchsetzung und Streitlösung (Dispute Resolution) veröffentlicht worden sind.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

2. smart (good-looking, well-dressed)

   Synonyms: chic, elegant, fein

• “smart” in Duden online
• “smart” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

• IPA^(key): /smart/

smart

1. first/second-person singular perfect of smar

smart

1. Alternative form of smert

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
• smarttelefon

• “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
• smarttelefon

• “smart” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

smart (invariable)

1. smart (with smart technology)

Borrowed from English smart.

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  (file)

smart (comparative smartare, superlative smartast)

1. smart; clever

• tarms, trams