[SMOKE sb. 1.]
1. The vent or external orifice of a flue; a hole in the roof of a hut through which the smoke of the fire escapes.
c. 1340. Nominale (Skeat), 479. For smoke a smoke-hole.
1493–4. Rec. St. Mary at Hill, 201. In expences whane sartayne of þe paryshe yede to Awew þe smoke holys.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, 22. Cover the top of Chimneyes…; the smoake holes can be … made on the sides.
1825. Lockhart, in Scott’s Fam. Lett. (1894), II. 298. The smoke hole … in the roof.
1856. Kane, Arctic Expl., I. xxx. 406. A smoke-hole passed through the roof.
1891. Rider Haggard, Nada, xxix. 240. Zinita … had climbed the hut, and now lay there in the dark, her ear upon the smoke-hole, listening to every word.
b. = FUMAROLE.
1899. Daily News, 18 Nov., 7/2. No lava is flowing, and even the fumarole, or smoke-holes, give forth no sign.
† 2. transf. or fig. a. An imposture, trick. b. A smoking-room. c. The mouth of a smoker. Obs.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, s.v. Fourbe, We may easily iudge of this stuffe, or smokehole, or guile.
1673. Charac. Coffee-Ho., in Harl. Misc. (1810), VI. 468. The arch devil, wherewith this smoke-hole is haunted, is the town-wit.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Walk round London, Wks. 1709, III. III. 59. Which unsavory Complement was thus retorted by our foul-mouth’d Prolocutor, viz. Stop your Smoak-hole Nincompoop.
