Also 6 smogue, smoog, 6–7 smugg(e. [Of doubtful origin; the form is against its being ad. LG. smuk (whence Da. smuk, Sw. smukk, G. schmuck) pretty, nice, as the change of k to g would be very irregular.]
1. Of male persons: Trim, neat, spruce, smart; in later use, having a self-satisfied, conceited, or consciously respectable air.
The word has been in very common use from the 16th cent., and the earlier sense shades imperceptibly into the later, so that quotations cannot be separated.
1551. Robinson, trans. More’s Utopia, I. (1895), 11. They be so smugge and smoethe, that they haue not so much as one heare of an honest man.
1581. Rich, Farew., K j. The Duke … perceiuyng him to bee a proper smogue yong man, gaue hym entertainment.
1613. Heywood, Brazen Age, II. iv. I was when I was borne A pretty smug knaue.
1669. Pepys, Diary, 28 March. To the Office with Tom, who looks mighty smug upon his marriage.
1706. Estcourt, Fair Example, V. i. Thou hast a handsom smug Neighbour that I believe knows her as well.
1740. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett., I. 124. He is a patrician too, and a smugger gentleman than Livy or any of his heroes.
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., I. lxix. Then thy spruce citizen, wash’d artizan, And smug apprentice gulp their weekly air.
1859. Thackeray, Virgin., II. 337. A smug officer of the United States Government.
1884. Sharman, Hist. Swearing, i. 2. The … smug undertakers of the neighbouring Soho.
b. Of women or girls. (Common c. 1590–1650 in the older sense of the word.)
1590. Greene, Never too late (1600), 98. Nowe Gods blessing on thy heart (quoth Callena) for louing such a smugge lasse.
1627. Feltham, Low Count. (1677), 47. As smug as a Lady that hath newly lockt up her Colours, and laid by her Irons.
1677. Otway, Cheats of Scapin, I. i. She is indeed a good smug lass.
1701. Steele, Grief a la Mode, III. i. Oh, that smug old woman! There’s no enduring her affectation of youth.
2. Of the face (person, etc.): Smooth, sleek; also, in later use = sense 5.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 59. His tayle smoog [L. lubrica] thirling, slyke breast to Titan vpheauing.
1592. Lyly, Midas, IV. i. Cross-gartred Swaines, & Dairie girles, With faces smug, and round as Pearles.
1593. G. Harvey, Pierce’s Super., Wks. (Grosart), II. 59. A slicke forhead, a smugg countenaunce.
1648. J. Beaumont, Psyche, VI. iv. Those dangerous Sirens whose smug maiden face Is ugly mortal Treason’s burnish’d Glass.
1712. Steele, Spectator, No. 428, ¶ 1. The Instrument which is to make your Visage less horrid and your Person more smug.
1790. Cowper, Odyss., XV. 404. Sleek their heads And smug their countenances.
1852. Thackeray, Esmond, I. x. It was edifying to behold him, fresh shaved and with smug face, singing out ‘Amen!’
1892. Mrs. Oliphant, Hist. Sk. Q. Anne, v. (1894), 237. Jeremy Bentham, in whose smug countenance Mill divined unspoken offences with an ingenuity worthy of a self-torturing woman.
3. Of things: Smooth, clean, neat, trim or tidy; in later use, having an appearance suggestive of complacency or respectability.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., III. i. 102. The smug and Siluer Trent.
1603. Dekker, Wonderful Year, Wks. (Grosart), I. 84. The skie … lookte smug and smoothe, and had not so much as a wart sticking on her face.
1620. Markham, Farew. Husb., II. xviii. (1668), 88. The Come … falls away and leaves the corn clean and smug of itself.
1777. Mme. D’Arblay, Early Diary, Journ., Putting on clean linnen, a tidy gown, and smug cap.
1841. De Quincey, Rhetoric (1860), 376. The smug and scanty draperies of his style.
1872. J. Hatton, Memorial Window, II. 262. To them, the smug signboards have been coffin plates.
† 4. Of language: Smooth, neat. Obs.
1607. Walkington, Opt. Glass, xii. 66 b. A smug neat stile, for delightsome sentences, vernished phrases.
1648. J. Beaumont, Psyche, XVII. clxxxviii. His soft smug words tickle your wanton ear.
1682. Annot. on Glanvill, 184. That trim and smug saying.
5. Indicative of, characterized by, complacency or conscious respectability.
1851. D. Jerrold, St. Giles, xi. 103. Human arrogance,… in the smug belief of its own election,… looks upon its fellow … as irrevocably lost.
1859. Kingsley, Misc., II. 102. Addressing the audience … in the most smug and self-satisfied tone.
1885. Athenæum, 30 May, 688. A man of smug expediency and polite compromise.
6. Comb., as smug-faced, -looking, -skinned.
1575. Gascoigne, Herbs, Wks. 173. I coulde haue brought a noble regiment Of smugskinnde Nunnes into my countrey soyle.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Wks., II. 252/1. The fourth that entred … Was … a smugfaced furie.
1720. Ramsay, Wealth, 113. Thrice lucky pimps, or smug-fac’d wanton fair.
1876. Miss Braddon, J. Haggard’s Dau., II. 2. The smug-faced deacons, in their glossy Sunday coats.
1895. ‘Ian Maclaren,’ Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush, i. A trim, smug-looking teacher’s house.
