a. north. dial. and Sc. Also 6 smittel(l, 9 smittal. [f. SMIT v. + -LE 1. Cf. MSw. smittol in the same sense.] Infectious; contagious. Esp. of diseases, etc.
Smittle has also dialect currency as sb. and vb.; the latter is given by Ray (1674). The adj. smittlish is also recorded by Grose (1787), and others.
1583. Leg. Bp. St. Androis, 760. Thair wald this halie bischope byde, Saying, forsuith, it was not smittell.
1720. Ramsay, Rise & Fall of Stocks, 38. The covetous infatuation Was smittle out o’er all the nation.
1781. in J. Hutton, Tour to Caves (ed. 2), Gloss. 96.
1811–. in dialect glossaries, etc.
1859. H. Kingsley, G. Hamlyn, xxxvi. Get thy saddles off, lad, and come in; ’tis a smittle night for rheumatics.
