sb. [SMOCK sb.]
1. A loose-fitting garment of coarse linen or the like, worn by farm-laborers over or instead of a coat and usually reaching to mid-leg or lower.
a. 1800. Pegge, Suppl. Grose, Smock-frock, a coarse linen shirt worn over the coat by waggoners, &c., called in the South a Gaberdine.
1805. Ann. Reg., Chron., 420/2. He pulled off his jacket or smock-frock.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xix. Men had lounged about all night in smock-frocks, and leather-leggings.
1883. T. Hardy, in Longm. Mag., July, 258. The genuine white smock-frock … and the whity-brown one … are rarely seen now afield.
Comb. 1857. A. W. Habersham, My Last Cruise, 346. A smockfrock-like garment came down half-way to the knee and was confined around the waist by a buckskin belt.
1891. Times, 27 Aug., 5/4. It is smockfrock-like in shape, with a hole for the neck.
2. A man wearing a smock-frock.
1898. J. Arch, Story of Life, ii. 31. Regular pitched battles of smock-frock against cloth-coat, they were, in which smock-frock held his own right well.
Hence Smock-frock v. intr. (with it), to wear a smock-frock; Smock-frocked a., wearing a smock-frock.
(a) 1808. Cobbett, Political Reg., XIV. 20 Aug., 257. Among the smock-frocked politicians.
1885. Eng. Illustr. Mag., Aug., 739/1. The stolid smock-frocked peasantry.
(b) 1840. Hood, Ye Tourists & Travellers, 6. Play dominoes, smoke, wear a cap and smock-frock it.
