Smoky

a. and sb. Also 4, 6–7 smokie, 7, 9 smokey; 6–7 smoakie, 6–9 smoaky. [f. SMOKE sb. + -Y.]

  A.  adj. 1. Emitting smoke in considerable volume.

1310.  St. Brendan (Bälz), 472. Þo seie hi … a lond derk inouȝ Smokie as it smyþes were.

c. 1407.  Lydg., Reson & Sens., 4122. Than is the fire … Of smoky Ethna the mounteyn.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 461/1. Smoky, fumosus.

1576.  Gascoigne, Philomene, Wks. 1910, II. 198. A Swallowe … builds in smoky chimney toppes.

1577.  trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 127. To set up a percher, a taper, or a smoakie torch.

1613.  Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 775. They vse smokie fires in their rooms.

c. 1663.  Cowley, To Light, xv. In Sympathizing Night he rowls his smoaky Fires.

1726.  Gay, Fables, I. xxiii. 11. A wrinkled Hag … Beside a little smoaky flame Sat hov’ring.

1818.  Byron, Beppo, xliii. Where reeking London’s smoky caldron simmers.

1884.  St. James’ Gaz., 25 July, 4/2. Letting off a quantity of the noisiest and smokiest fireworks procurable.

  b.  Of a chimney: Inclined to send out smoke into the room.

1639.  J. Smyth, in Glouc. Gloss. (1890), 201. If many gossips sit against a smokey chimney the smoke will bend to the fairest.

1785.  Franklin (title), Observations on Smoky Chimneys.

1844.  Emerson, Ess., II. Nature. It … cured the smoky chimney, silenced the creaking door.

1869.  E. A. Parkes, Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3), 141. The down current coming in puffs is one cause of smoky chimneys.

  2.  Of vapor, mist, etc.: Having the character or appearance of smoke; resembling smoke; smoke-like.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Troylus, III. 628. Every maner womman that was there, Hadde of that smoky reyn a verray fere.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xxxvi. (Bodl. MS.). Þe breeste … putteþ oute smoky vapour þat is ibred in þe hert.

1426.  Lydg., De Guil. Pilgr., 11034. Two ful vnkouth skyes … off smoky mystes & vapours.

a. 1542.  Wyatt, Ps. li. 20. There had owt off the sowth A lewk warme wynd browght forth a smoky rayne.

1662.  Hibbert, Body of Divinity, I. 205. By Breathing … the gross and more smoky spirits are exhaled out of the breast.

1743.  Davidson, Æneid, VII. 203. The Smoaky Fluid in Foam overflows.

1784.  Cowper, Task, V. 105. The light and smoky mist.

1817.  J. Bradbury, Trav. Amer., 259. The atmosphere … becomes hazy, or what they term smoky.

1853.  Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxix. (1856), 246. The frost-smoke was in smoky banks to the north-west.

  3.  Full of, or charged with, smoke; rendered offensive or disagreeable by the presence of smoke.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XII. iii. (Bodl. MS.). Þerefore here mewes moste be ferre fro smoky places.

c. 1407.  Lydg., Reson & Sens., 6638. Anoon as he his torche hath queynt, The smoky air … Ran … in lengthe and brede.

1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., III. i. 161. O, he is … Worse then a smoakie House.

1608.  D. T[uvill], Ess. Pol. & Mor., 39. To lodge within the inclosure of a smokie roofe.

1700.  T. Brown, trans. Fresny’s Amusem. Ser. & Com., 116. At the Bar … a charming Phillis or two, invite you … into their smoaky Territories.

1749.  Berkeley, Word to the Wise, Wks. III. 440. It takes the peasant from his smoky cabin into the fresh air.

1806.  Med. Jrnl., XV. 366. Ozanne received them in a smoaky hut.

1869.  E. A. Parkes, Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3), 107. The effect of smoky town atmospheres in producing lung affections.

1891.  C. T. C. James, Rigmarole, 18. All through a smoky evening I spent in that inn parlour.

  b.  Blackened or begrimed by smoke.

1552.  Elyot, Dict., Fumosæ imagines, olde smoky images.

1588.  Greene, Metamorphosis, Wks. (Grosart), IX. 50. Wilt thou … seeke with the smoky Cyclops to kisse Venus hand?

1634.  Milton, Comus, 324. In lowly sheds With smoky rafters.

1848.  Dickens, Dombey, xxiii. The two trees with the smoky trunks were blighted high up.

  4.  fig. Having the obscuring, objectionable or unsubstantial qualities of smoke. Obs.

1533.  More, Answ. Poysoned Bk., Wks. 1035/1. The pestilent contagion of al such smoky communicacion.

1581.  J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 277 b. Besides vayne crakes of smoky speeches, ye shewe no demonstration of sounde proofe.

1624.  Skinner, in Parr, Life Usher (1686), 358. Other points these devilish Spirits of the Jesuits … by their smoaky Doctrine do resist.

1633.  Hart, Diet of Diseased, II. xiv. 193. Their smoakie promises not being seconded by answerable events.

  5.  Having the flavor or odor of smoke; tasting or smelling of smoke.

1542.  Becon, Potation for Lent, Wks. 1564, I. I. 45. From a smokie pece of Bacon.

1707.  Floyer, Physic. Pulse-Watch, 332. The smoaky Bitters, Cichory, Carduus.

1892.  Walsh, Tea, 93. The ‘smoky’ and ‘tarry’ flavors possessed by many of them.

  6.  Of the color of smoke; dark, dusky; spec. of a brownish or bluish shade of grey.

1555.  Eden, Decades (Arb.), 280. Halfe an houre after the rysynge it appeareth troubeled dymme and smoky.

1598.  B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum., I. iii. (1601), C. Will you now … hide such reall ornaments … as a Millaners wife doth her wrought stomacher, with a smoakie lawne or a blacke cipresse?

1647.  Hexham, I. (Colours), A Smokie colour, een roock verwe.

1750.  trans. Leonardus’ Mirr. Stones, 38. Blackness is occasion’d by a smoaky and adust Terrene.

1796.  H. Hunter, trans. St.-Pierre’s Stud. Nat. (1799), II. 196. The red and smoky colour of their flowers.

1855.  Brewster, Life Newton, I. vii. 171. A large crystal of quartz of a smoky colour.

1897.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., IV. 288. If it is present in small quantities only, the urine will be smoky.

  b.  In names of stones, esp. smoky quartz.

1797.  Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XII. 82/1. Blackish brown, smoky topaz, or rauch topaz of the Germans.

1837.  Dana, Min., 340. Smoky quartz is a transparent, or translucent crystalline variety, having a smoky color.

1883.  Encycl. Brit., XVI. 389/1. The brown or Smoky Quartz (coloured by a substance containing carbon and nitrogen).

  c.  In names of moths, bats, birds, etc.

1827.  Griffith, trans. Cuvier, V. 63. Molossus Fumarius (Smoky Bulldog Bat).

1832.  J. Rennie, Butterfl. & Moths, 87. The Smoky Wainscot. Ibid., 142. The Smoky Wave.

1871.  Cassell’s Nat. Hist., I. 320. The Smoky Mastiff Bat is a well-known South American species.

1884.  Coues, N. Amer. Birds, 419. Psilorhinus.… Brown Jays. Smoky Pies.

  7.  Qualifying names of colors.

1576.  Fleming, Panopl. Epist., A 4. All smokie blacke as Pitch.

1611.  Cotgr., s.v. Enfer, A darke, and smoakie browne.

1629.  Parkinson, Parad., 182. The three [leaves] that stand upright [are] of a smoakie yellow.

1706.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4249/4. Lost…, a smoaky gray Horse.

1837.  Penny Cycl., VII. 26/2. Upper part of the neck smoky red.

1872.  Coues, N. Amer. Birds, 194. The belly smoky-gray in some localities.

  8.  Steaming, reeking; rising in fine spray.

c. 1590.  Marlowe, Faustus, 1448. F 2 b. My limbes may issue from your smoaky mouthes.

1594.  Kyd, Cornelia, V. 323. K 4 b. Fro the wound the smoky blood ran bubling.

1697.  Dryden, Æneid, V. 185. Lash’d with their Oars, the smoaky Billows rise; Sparkles the briny Main, and the vex’d Ocean fries.

1725.  Pope, Odyss., X. 150. Their oars they seize, And sweep with equal strokes the smoky seas.

1807.  J. Barlow, Columb., III. 523. [They] then part the smoky flesh, enjoy the feast.

  9.  Addicted to, associated with, the smoking of tobacco.

1596.  Nashe, Saffron Walden, Wks. (Grosart), III. 158. And to approue his Heraldrie, scutchend out the honourable Armes of the smoakie Societie.

1613.  Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 827. To which opinion, for the excellencie of the Tobacco there found, he should happily haue the smokie subscriptions of many Humorists.

1806.  Lamb, in Ainger, Life (1882), 65. A smoky man must write smoky farces.

1893.  Daily News, 26 Dec., 5/1. The sodden and smokey young men who may be found watching football matches.

  † 10.  Quick to suspect or take note; shrewd, sharp, suspicious. Obs.

  The Dict. Cant. Crew (a 1700) also gives ‘jealous.’

1688.  Shadwell, Sqr. Alsatia, III. i. 42 They shall find me a smoaky Thief. Ibid., IV. iv. 67. I am sharp, as I told you, and smoaky.

1711.  Steele, Spect., No. 132, ¶ 3. Thou art, I see, a smoaky old Fellow, and I’ll be very orderly the ensuing Part of the Journey.

1765.  Foote, Commissary, I. (1782), 23. This old brother of ours tho’ is smoaky and shrewd, and tho’ an odd, a sensible fellow.

1784.  R. Bage, Barham Downs, II. 132. She is what you call a smoky damsel.

  11.  U.S. Of horses: Vicious.

1899.  T. Roosevelt, in Scribner’s Mag., XXV. 13/2. Smoky Moore, the bronco-buster, so named because cow-boys often call vicious horses ‘smoky’ horses.

  12.  Comb., as smoky-bearded, -flavo(u)red, -tinted; smoky-looking, -seeming, -waving.

1598.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. ii. II. Babylon, 133. Small, smoaky-waving clouds.

1610.  B. Jonson, Alch., IV. vi. (1612), K 3 b. And this Doctor, Your sooty, smoaky-bearded Compeere.

1611.  Speed, Theat. Gt. Brit. (1614), 121/1. Certaine thicke and smoky-seeming mists.

1611.  Cotgr., Enfumé,… smoakie-coloured.

1825.  T. Hook, Sayings, Ser. II. Passion & Princ., viii. III. 124. The dingy, ill-smelling, smoky-looking coffee-room.

1834.  Tait’s Mag., I. 7/1. The smoky-flavoured Glenlivet toddy.

1862.  Dana, Min., 134. A smoky-tinted quartz crystal.

  B.  sb. 1. dial. The hedge-sparrow.

1889.  H. Saunders, Brit. Birds, 85. The Hedge-Sparrow is known by a variety of names, such as … ‘Smokie,’ and ‘Shuffle-wing.’

1894.  in Heslop, Northumbld. Gloss.

  2.  Sc. A smoked haddock.

1891.  W. Gordon, in Edwards, Mod. Sc. Poets, Ser. XIV. 243.

  3.  A smoke or smoke-blue cat.

1898.  Ladies’ Field, 6 Aug., 378/2. The two smokies, Cossy and Jetterina.