Obs. exc. dial. Forms: 1 smoeðe, 1–3 smeðe, 2–4 smeþe, 4–5 smethe, smeth (4 smith), 9 dial. smeeth, smeath, smeede, smee. [OE. smœðe, sméðe (:—*smōþi-), related to smóð SMOOTH a., which is rare in OE. but from c. 1400 has almost entirely supplanted smeeth.]
A. adj. Smooth; free from roughness.
c. 725. Corpus Gloss., P 511. Politis, smoeðum.
c. 825. Vesp. Hymns, xii. 7. Ðec stefn smoeðu hlydeð.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., John xix. 23. Cyrtil unruh vel smoeðe.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Luke iii. 5. Unʓerydu [beoð] on smeðe weʓas.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 219. Þat he [a rod] be riht and smal and long and smeþe.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 2. Þe on riwleð þe heorte, þe makeð hire efne & smeðe.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 3490. Þe first was born was rogh as hare, þe toþer child was smeth and bare.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xxxv. (Bodl. MS.). Þe flessch of þe lunges is nassche and smeþe.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 47. Thou hit sethe With otene grotes, þat ben so smethe.
1808. Jamieson, s.v., Smeeth in the mou, a phrase applied to a horse that has lost mark of mouth.
1878. Dickinson, Cumbld. Gloss., 89/2. Smeeth, Smee, smooth.
1894. Heslop, Northumbld. Gloss., 661. Smeede, smooth…. This often occurs in place-names.
B. sb. A level space. E. Anglian dial.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 460/2. Smethe, or smothe,… planicies.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Smeath, an open level of considerable extent. [Rye (1895) adds, commonly pronounced and printed Smee.]
1893. Cozens-Hardy, Broad Norf., 70. Smeaa—Used for marshland, as ‘Down by the carnser and over the smeaa.’
