local. Also 7 smieth, 7, 9 smethe, 9 smeeth. [Obscurely related to SMEE.]
1. The smee. Also smeeth duck.
1622. Drayton, Poly-olb., xxv. 67. The gossander … With whom the widgeon goes, the golden-eye, the smeath.
1634. Brereton, Trav. (Chetham Soc.), 17. Two pellstarts, two smeathes, two shovelars. Ibid., 23. Smeathes he keeps in a hut … covered with a pet.
1674. Josselyn, Voy. New Engl., 101. But of Ducks there be many more sorts, as … Puets, Plovers, Smethes, Wilmotes [etc.].
1893. Cozens-Hardy, Broad Norf., 47. Smee—Widgeon, Smeeth Duck ?
2. U.S. In New Jersey: The pintail duck.
1888. G. Trumbull, Names & Portr. Birds, 38. Others at Tuckerton refer to it as Smethe.
