Smutty

a. Also 6–7 smootie, 7–8 smooty, 7 smuttie. [f. SMUT sb. or v. Cf. G. schmutzig.]

  1.  Of grain: Affected by smut.

1597.  Gerarde, Herball, I. l. 70. That corne where it is, is called smootie corne.

1637.  Remnant, Disc. Bees, Title-p., The Causes and Cure of Blasted Wheat,… together with the Causes of Smutty Wheat.

1657.  S. Purchas, Pol. Flying-Ins., 142. Usually if one stalk hath the ear smutty, all that arise from the same root are infected.

1733.  Tull, Horse-Hoeing Husb., xii. (Dubl.), 143. The Wheat Plants in the Field, from whence these were taken, brought very few smutty Grains.

1769.  Reid, Wks. (1863), I. 49/1. I put some smutty oats in water.

1803.  A. Hunter, Georg. Ess., I. 182. There was a great deal of smutty wheat that year.

1846.  J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. 401. The following experiment was made … on a smutty sample of wheat.

  2.  Soiled with, full of, characterized by, smut; dirty; blackened.

c. 1645.  Howell, Lett., I. IV. v. I pray [you] leave the smutty Ayr of London, and com hither to breathe sweeter.

1665.  Hooke, Microgr., 3. Like smutty daubings on a matt or uneven floor with a blunt extinguisht brand or stick’s end.

1677.  Compl. Servant-Maid, 155. Though your employment be greasie and smooty.

1716.  Pope, Lett. to Earl Burlington. He was a smutty dog yesterday, and cost me near two hours to wash the ink off his face.

1812.  Sir W. Elford, in L’Estrange, Friendships Miss Mitford (1882), I. iii. 85. On turning the corner, I see my paper is very smutty.

1880.  ‘Vernon Lee,’ Stud. Italy, II. iii. 57. A smutty portrait of her dressed in brown brocade.

  3.  Of the color of smut; dusky; dark.

1648.  Earl Westmoreland, Otia Sacra (1879), 148.

1658.  R. Franck, North. Mem. (1821), 302. Smooty and discoloured clouds.

1778.  W. Pryce, Min. Cornub., 91. A smutty black, or black grey Crystal.

1796.  Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), I. 288. It seems of a smutty yellow.

1863.  Kingsley, Water-Bab. (1874), 40. Four or five smutty little cubs.

1890.  Spectator, 30 Aug., 274. His once smutty plumage now showing rich colouring of black and white and brown.

  4.  Having the appearance or form of smut.

1667.  Milton, P. L., IV. 817. The Smuttie graine With sudden blaze diffus’d, inflames the Aire.

1714.  Gay, Trivia, III. 383. The nitrous Store is laid, the smutty Train With running blaze awakes the barrell’d Grain.

  5.  Indecent, immodest, impure, obscene.

1668.  Pepys, Diary, 20 June. I saw this new play my wife saw yesterday, and do not like it, it being very smutty.

a. 1677.  Barrow, Serm., Wks. 1716, I. 146. It is very culpable to be facetious in obscene and smutty matters.

1706.  J. H. Browne, Pipe of Tobacco, Poems (1768), 124. The smutty tale Of country justice o’er his ale.

1768–74.  Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 124. He … puts the women to the blush with his smutty jokes and rude jeers.

1820.  Blackw. Mag., VI. 629. Mr. Hunt’s smutty story of Rimini.

1851.  Th. Parker, in Weiss, Life (1863), I. 390. He is smutty, and vulgar and low.

1894.  Tablet, 16 June, 920. It is only when the details are sensational or smutty that room is found for them in the columns of the great dailies.

  6.  Comb., as smutty-face, -faced, -nosed.

1675.  Cotton, Burlesque upon B., I. 60/5. Ha! ha! old *smutty face, well sed.

1899.  F. W. Bourne, Billy Bray, 99 (E.D.D.). He told the tempter, ‘old smutty-face,’ to do this himself.

1833.  Ht. Martineau, Tale of Tyne, v. 96. The *smutty-faced crew.

1901.  Dundee Advertiser, 7 June, 4. The pride of Mr. Tory’s farms are his … ‘smutty-faced’ Dorset Down sheep.

1884.  Coues, N. Amer. Birds, 425. P[erisoreus] c[anadensis] fumifrons,… *Smutty-nosed Jay. Ibid., 783. P[riofinus] melanurus.… Smutty-nosed Shearwater.