† 1. A licentious man. Obs.
In early use employed suggestively as a surname.
1550. Bale, Image Both Ch., II. xi. Ser Saunder smell smock, our parish priest.
1562. Pilkington, Expos. Abdyas, 98. So can our belligoddes, the Popes Sir Jhon smell smocke, smel a feast in all parishes nere him.
1607. Middleton, Fam. Love, II. iii. (1608), C j b. To preuent this smell smock, Ile to my friend.
1634. Heywood, Maidendh. well lost, II. Wks. 1874, IV. 125. I thinke you’le proue little better then a smell-smocke, That can finde out a pretty wench in such a Corner.
1673. R. Head, Canting Acad., 147. These attractions … drew on a number of Smell-smocks, which courted her.
2. dial. As a plant-name, applied to (a) the cuckoo-flower, (b) the wood-anemone, and (c) the wood-sorrel.
1876–. in dialect glossaries, etc. (cf. Britten & Holland Plant Names and the Eng. Dial. Dict.).
