Now rare or Obs. Also smoutch. [Alteration of SMOUSE sb.]
1. A Jew.
1765. C. Johnston, Chrysal (1794), III. 60. I hate them [the Inquisitors] mortally ever since I saw them roast some poor Smouches at Lisbon because they would not eat pork.
1785. R. Cumberland, Observer, No. 38, ¶ 2. Smoke the Jew! Throw him over, says another, hand over the smoutch!
1826. Scott, Jrnl., I. 137. I took lessons of oil painting from a little Jew animalcule; a smouch called Burrell.
1842. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Ser. II. Merch. V. (1905), 246. You find fault mit ma pargains, and say Im a Smouch.
2. S. African. An itinerant trader.
1849. E. E. Napier, Excurs. S. Africa, II. 391. I dare say you have heard that I have turned a regular smoutch, the Colonial term for trader.