Forms: α. 2 smorðer, 3 smurðre, 4 smorþre, 5 smorþur, -thour, -ther. β. 3–4 smoþer, 6– smother, 6–7 smoother. γ. 5 smodyr, -er, 6 smooder, 9 dial. smudder. [Early ME. smorðer, f. the stem of OE. smorian SMORE v.]
1. Dense, suffocating, or stifling smoke, such as is produced by combustion without flame. (Freq. coupled with smoke.)
α. c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 43. Þet þridde [was] fur,… þe siste smorðer.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 272. Þes feones chef þet nis to none þinge nouht bute to helle smurðre.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XX. 303. When smoke and smorþre smyt in hus eyen.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 11796. Hit fest was on fyre, & flappit out onone, Vnto smorther & smoke.
β, γ. a. 1300. Body & Soul, in Map’s Poems (Camden), 339. Þe erþe it openede anon, smoke and smoþer op it wal.
13[?]. Adultery, 87, in Herrig, Archiv, LXXIX. 420. Smoþer & smoke þer come owte wylde.
a. 1400. Stockh. Medical MS., ii. 598, in Anglia, XVIII. 322. Ȝif vnder nethyn þer hennys sate Of hennebane a smoþer thou make.
a. 1470. H. Parker, Dives & Pauper (W. de W., 1496), VI. xxii. 270/2. There shall be brennynge fyre and smoder without ende.
c. 1618. Sylvester, Urania, lxxxii. A thick, dark, pitchy Cloud of smoak, That round-about a kindling Fire suppresses With waving smother.
1657. P. Henry, Diaries & Lett. (1882), 33. When a fire is first kindled there’s a great deale of smoke and smother.
1748. Anson’s Voy., III. viii. 381. The great smother and smoke of the oakum.
1787. G. White, Selborne, vii. Nothing is to be seen but smother and desolation.
1828. Planché, Descent Danube, i. 25. The distant dome of Saint Paul’s rising above the smother of our huge metropolis.
1882. Blackmore, Christowell, III. xvii. 267. Filled with blue sulphureous fog, and smother of bitumen.
Prov. 1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., I. ii. 299. Thus must I from the smoake into the smother.
1890. Daily News, 25 June, 5/1. They had gone from the smoke into the smother.
fig. 1565. Jewel, Reply Harding, Answ. Concl. (1611), 651. Now the Sonne is vp; your smooder is scattered.
1654. Gataker, Disc. Apol., 12. A great smother of foggie fumes, raised by slanderous tongues.
1697. Collier, Ess. Mor. Subj. (1709), II. 2. Why else do they … spend their Taper in Smoak and Smother?
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, X. i. (Rtldg.), 337. The mad blockhead was so suffocated by the smother of authorship.
b. A smoldering state or condition; a smoldering or slow-burning fire. Also fig.
1597. J. King, On Jonas (1618), 172. It lieth happely in a smother and smoak a long time before it breaketh out.
1625. Bacon, Ess., Suspicion (Arb.), 528. Men should remedy Suspicion, by procuring to know more, and not to keep their Suspicions in Smother.
1893. Wilts. Gloss., Smother, a weed and rubbish fire in a garden.
1899. Lt.-Col. T. S. Baldock, Cromwell as Soldier, 363. This [liberty] he employed in fanning the smother into flame.
2. Dense or suffocating dust, fog, etc., filling the air.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, II. 827. Where clouds of dust arise,—Amid that smother, Neptune holds his place.
1806. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life, IV. xlii. Rubbish, flying smother, tumbling bricks, &c. of a half-ruined house.
1845. Browning, Flight of Duchess, xi. The Duke … Stood for a while in a sultry smother.
1886. Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll, 50. Through the muffle and smother of these fallen clouds.
b. A confused turmoil or welter of foam or water. Also const. of.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xviii. We … brought the boat to in a smother of foam.
1888. Stevenson, Black Arrow, 183. The horror of that great salt smother and welter under my foot here.
1890. Clark Russell, My Shipmate Louise, II. xx. 108. It made one think … of the smother one falls in with on the edge of the Gulf-Stream.
c. A wild profusion of flowers, etc.
1888. Daily News, 2 July, 5/8. The smother of roses along the river fronts was surprisingly beautiful under the flooding sunlight.
d. A smothered or indistinct noise.
1904. H. B. M. Watson, Hurricane Island, i. 7. A smother of sound came to me, as if the swimmer was under water, and his voice stifled.
3. slang. (See quots.)
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, II. 34. A ‘lick-up’ is a boot or shoe re-lasted…, and the bottom covered with a ‘smother.’ Ibid. This ‘smother’ is obtained from the dust of the room.
4. Comb., as smother-burned, -dangled.
1597. Pilgr. Parnass., I. 87. Those Amorettoes that doe spend theire time In comminge of their smother-dangled heyre.
1849. Johnston, Exp. Agric., 265. Such burned sulphury shales (smother burned) may be tried with advantage.
