[f. SMOKE v. + -ER1. Cf. Du., Fris., MLG. smoker, LG. smöker (Da. smøger), G. dial. schmaucher, schmöcher, schmeucher.]
1. a. One who cures fish, bacon, etc., by means of smoke.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, Wks. (Grosart), V. 278. Our Herring smoker hauing worn his monsters stale throughout England.
1688. Lond. Gaz., No. 2331/4. A Smoaker in Philpot-lane, London.
1699. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), IV. 530. Jeffery Jefferyes, esq. the smoaker.
1831. Jane Porter, Sir E. Seaward’s Narr., III. 29. Another had been a sausage-maker, or a beef and ham smoker.
1883. F. A. Smith, Swedish Fisheries, 6. Scotch curers and smokers have, by private enterprise, been sent to Bohuslän.
b. One who jests at, or ridicules, others.
1812. G. Colman, Br. Grins, Two Parsons, lxxxv. (1833), 181. These wooden Wits, these Quizzers, Queerers, Smokers.
2. Something that emits smoke: † a. A war-vessel employed to conceal or assist hostile operations by discharging volumes of smoke. Obs.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Smoker, a Vessel to Blind the Enemies, to make way for the Machine to Play.
1726. Shelvocke, Voy. round World, 321. To bring me away in case I should have occasion to make use of mine as a Fire-ship, or a Smoaker.
1811. Self Instructor, 587. Vessels of war are … a machine-vessel, a smoaker.
† b. colloq. A steamer. Obs.–1
1825. Sporting Mag., XVI. 211. We walked four miles early in the morning to the smoker.
c. A smoky chimney, locomotive, etc.
1883. J. Martine, Reminisc. Old Haddington, 29. Dr Welsh’s kitchen chimney was an inveterate smoker, and had baffled the endeavours of many professionals to cure it.
1897. A. Sinclair, in Pall Mall Mag., Sept., 77. Strangers might suppose that American locomotives were inveterate smokers.
d. A contrivance for smoking bees.
1875. J. Hunter, Man. Bee-keeping (1884), 150. The simplest smoker of all is a roll of cotton rags.
3. One who smokes tobacco, opium, or the like.
1617. Brathwait, Smoaking Age, 171. Yet of all these, none to me so profest enemies as these smokers of our Age.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., 302. A great smoker, &c. that never spit in his life.
1727. De Foe, Protestant Monast., 10. He had been from his Youth a great Smoaker.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 86. Both sexes are great smoakers.
1820. Byron, Juan, III. xxxiv. Afar, a dwarf buffoon stood telling tales To a sedate grey circle of old smokers.
1882. Sala, Amer. Revis., II. 140. The deficient accommodation provided for smokers.
b. Smoker’s heart, throat, a diseased condition of the heart or throat caused by excessive smoking. Smoker’s patch, a smooth, bare white patch on the tongue due to excess in smoking.
1889. Buck’s Handbk. Med. Sci., VII. 110. Smoker’s Patch. Ibid., VIII. 553. Catarrh and hoarseness are so frequent as to give rise to the name ‘smoker’s throat.’
1906. Bradford Daily Telegr., 16 June, 2/8. Nicotine … causing irregular action, and producing the condition known as smoker’s heart.
c. U.S. A grade of tobacco for smoking.
1880. U.S. Census, Rep. Culture Tobacco, 15. Class 1. Domestic Cigar Tobacco and Smokers.
4. a. A railway carriage or compartment assigned for the use of those travellers who wish to smoke.
1882. Sala, Amer. Revis., II. 140. The car known as the ‘smoker’ is usually relegated to the least eligible part of the train.
1894. G. B. Drake, in Outing, XXIV. 216/1. The train had just begun to move when we threw our bundles upon the platform of the smoker and climbed up after them.
b. A concert at which smoking is permitted.
1891. Wheeling, 25 Feb., 401. The Upperthorpe C.C. held a very enjoyable smoker on Thursday evening last.
5. School slang. One who blushes.
1866. Routledge’s Every Boy’s Ann., 217. If you happen to blush, he whispers in your ear ‘smoker.’
