[f. SMITH sb. + -ERY. Cf. Fris. smidterij, smitterij. Du. smederij, G. schmiederei.]
1. The trade, occupation or art of a smith; smithcraft, smithing, smith-work.
1625. A. Gill, Sacr. Philos., II. xxiv. 188. All the objects of Smithery, locks, guns, swords, and the like.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies, Somerset., III. (1662), 21. More I have not to say of Dunstan, save that … his skill in Smithery was so great [etc.].
1705. trans. Bosman’s Guinea, 128. Their chief Handicraft, with which they are acquainted, being the Smithery.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Lock, The Lock is reckon’d the Masterpiece in Smithery.
1841. Faraday, in Bence Jones, Life (1870), II. 146. I love a smith’s shop and anything relating to smithery.
1850. K. H. Digby, Compitum, III. 201. Different labours, such as … masonry, carpentry, smithery, and saddlery.
attrib. 1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., II. 128. Leave we him at the Furnace in Smithery-work.
b. In fig. uses.
1796. Burke, Lett. to Noble Lord, Wks. II. 271. The din of all this smithery may some time or other possibly wake this noble duke.
1831. De Quincey, Whiggism in Relat. to Lit., Wks. 1859, VI. 33. From all this sonorous smithery of harsh words … nothing adequate emerged.
2. The forge or workshop of a smith; a smithy; esp. in British Admiralty dockyards, the building in which the smith-work is done.
1755. in Johnson.
1861. Times, 24 May, 8/1. Lord C. Paget … denied that the smithery at Chatham was a ruin, and said that it was quite as good a smithery as any in the other dockyards.
1871. Daily News, 5 Sept., 3/6. An extensive range of black sheds near the sawmills in the Royal Arsenal … are about to be removed, and replaced by a large smithery.
