Also 7–8 smutt, 8–9 smoot. [Related to SMUT v. Cf. LG. schmutt, G. schmutz, in sense 1; also MHG. smuz, smutz fat, grease, G. schmutz (Sw. smuts, Da. smuds) dirt, filth. See also SMOT sb.1
The adj. smutty is recorded earlier in most of the senses, and the sb. may be mainly a back-formation from this.]
1. A fungous disease affecting various plants, esp. cereals, which are spoiled by the grain being wholly or partly converted into a blackish powder; also, one or other of the fungi (species of Ustilagineæ) causing the disease.
1665. Phil. Trans., I. 93. Meldew, Blasting, Smut.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 214. Smut seems to proceed from the same cause.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 153. Such grain was apt to carry a smut.
1796. Withering, Brit. Pl. (ed. 3), IV. 388. This is the Smut, so frequently found upon the ears of different sorts of growing corn, and also upon grasses.
1834. Brit. Husb., I. 379 (L.U.K.). The practice of steeping seed-wheat … applies rather to smut, than to rust or mildew.
1875. H. C. Wood, Therap. (1879), 555. The Smut of Indian Corn (Ustilago maidis) appears to have active medicinal properties.
b. A smutted grain. rare–1.
1799. Hull Advertiser, 23 Feb., 1/1. These machines … do not crush the smuts or bunt in wheat.
2. A black mark or stain; a smudge. Also fig.
1664. H. More, Myst. Iniq., 474. But that there is not the least smutt of Antichristianism in Episcopacy itself, I have already abundantly evinced.
1671. Woodhead, St. Teresa, II. ii. 12. All that is fair … in this world, is but a smut with a cole.
1830. ‘B. Moubray,’ Dom. Poultry, etc. 163. The smut consists of a black spot on the side of the rabbit’s nose.
1861. Fraser’s Mag., June, 772. A black mark on his [sc. a rabbit’s] nose, which is called a butterfly smut.
3. Coal-mining. Bad, soft, earthy coal.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., 146. Above ground they look for a smut as they call it, i. e. a friable black earth.
1796. Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), II. 51. Smut seems also a variety of this species [sc. inflammable mineral carbon], but more impure. Ibid. (1799), Geol. Ess., 292. The uppermost seam of coal is commonly soft and dusty, it is vulgarly called smut.
1806. Phil. Trans., XCVI. 346. Smoot and Fire Clay.
1829. Glover, Hist. Derby, I. 59. Measures of strata:… Soft coal or smut 2 ft. 10 in.
1860–. in mining glossaries.
4. Soot or sooty matter.
1693. Dryden, etc. Juvenal, vi. (1726), 71. The steam of Lamps still hanging on her cheeks In ropy Smut.
1712. E. Cooke, Voy. S. Sea, 45. Spotted down the Cheeks with white Clay, and some black Streaks of Smut.
1790. Burke, Let. Noble Lord, Wks. VIII. 97. Our most salutary and most beautiful institutions yield nothing but dust and smut.
1846. Landor, Imag. Conv., II. 91. The furnace is mere smut, and no bellows to blow the embers.
1893. R. Grant, in Scribner’s Mag., June, 778/1. The remotest articles of furniture are rife with infinitesimal smut.
b. A particle of sooty matter.
1806. Southey, Lett. (1856), I. 375. That cursed composition of smoke, dust, smuts, human breath, and marsh vapour.
1849. Lytton, Caxtons, XIV. ii. A joyous dance of those monads, called vulgarly smuts.
1894. Mrs. Ritchie, Chapters Mem., viii. 106. A lady sitting with an umbrella in the drizzle of rain and falling smuts from the funnel.
c. A very minute insect.
1899. Daily News, 28 Dec., 6/4. A trout … grubs in the weeds, chases larvæ, and revels in almost invisible smuts.
5. Indecent or obscene language.
1698. Jer. Collier, Immor. Stage, i. (1730), 4. The Modern Poets seem to use Smut as the old Ones did Machines, to relieve a fainting Invention.
1706. Reflex. upon Ridicule, 206. ’Tis a miserable way of Pleasing, to scatter Smut in all your Stories.
1760–2. Goldsmith, Cit. W., xlix. The gentlemen talked smut, the ladies laughed and were angry.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., ii. Drunken freaks, and drunken quarrels, and smut, and blasphemy.
1858. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., VI. iv. (1872), II. 173. Discourse of a cheerful or of a serious nature,… and not the least smut permitted.
1886. Spectator, 4 Dec., 1621. The public must have titles, or smut, or murder, and wishes in its heart always to have two of them together.
† 6. slang. (See quot.) Obs.–1
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., Smut, a copper boiler, or furnace.
7. attrib., as (sense 1) smut bag, corn, fungus, machine, spore, etc.; (sense 5) smut-note; smut-grass U.S., a rush-grass (Sporobolus Indicus), the spikes of which are usually blackened by a smut.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 361, ¶ 13. He teaches the Smut-note, the Fustian-note, the Stupid-note.
1731. in 6th Rep. Dep. Kpr., App. II. 119. A new Machine for cleaning Wheat … is contrived to take away the stains, smut bags, and other trumpery.
1790. Trans. Soc. Arts, VIII. 32. Wheat, sown too long on the same spot, without changing the seed, will generally become smutt and hen-corn.
1852. Appleton’s Dict. Mach., II. 588. Smut Machine … for cleaning all kinds of grain.
1868. Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 37. A few cattle in Massachusetts have died from eating ‘smut corn.’
1897. W. G. Smith, trans. Tubeuf’s Dis. Plants, 275. The Ustilagineae or Smut-fungi are distinguished by their dark-coloured or black chlamydospores. Ibid., 276. In this way any adherent smut-spores are killed.
