smart

Verb

smart (third-person singular simple present smarts, present participle smarting, simple past smarted or (obsolete) smort, past participle smarted or (obsolete) smorten)

1. (intransitive) To hurt or sting.

   After being hit with a pitch, the batter exclaimed "Ouch, my arm smarts!"

   Ow, my belly smarts.

   • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula Chapter 21

     He moved convulsively, and as he did so, said, "I'll be quiet, Doctor. Tell them to take off the strait waistcoat. I have had a terrible dream, and it has left me so weak that I cannot move. What's wrong with my face? It feels all swollen, and it smarts dreadfully."

2. (transitive) To cause a smart or sting in.
   • T. Adams

     A goad that […] smarts the flesh.

3. To feel a pungent pain of mind; to feel sharp pain or grief; to suffer; to feel the sting of evil.
   • Alexander Pope

     No creature smarts so little as a fool.

   • Bible, Proverbs xi. 15

     He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it.

   • 1790, Ann Ward Radcliffe, chapter 11, in A Sicilian Romance‎, HTML edition:

     Meanwhile the Abate exulted in successful vengeance, and the marquis smarted beneath the stings of disappointment.

Adjective

smart (comparative smarter or more smart, superlative smartest or most smart)

1. Causing sharp pain; stinging.
   • Shakespeare

     How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience.

2. Sharp; keen; poignant.

   a smart pain

3. Exhibiting social ability or cleverness.
   • 1811, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, chapter 19

     I always preferred the church, and I still do. But that was not smart enough for my family. They recommended the army. That was a great deal too smart for me.

4. (informal) Exhibiting intellectual knowledge, such as that found in books.
5. (often in combination) Equipped with digital/computer technology.

   smart bomb, smart car

   smartcard, smartphone

6. Good-looking.

   a smart outfit

7. Cleverly shrewd and humorous in a way that may be rude and disrespectful.

   He became tired of his daughter's sarcasm and smart remarks.

   • Young

     Who, for the poor renown of being smart / Would leave a sting within a brother's heart?

   • Addison

     a sentence or two, […] which I thought very smart

8. Sudden and intense.
   • Clarendon

     smart skirmishes, in which many fell

   • 1860 July 9, Henry David Thoreau, journal entry, from Thoreau's bird-lore, Francis H. Allen (editor), Houghton Mifflin (Boston, 1910), Thoreau on Birds: notes on New England birds from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau, Beacon Press, (Boston, 1993), page 239:

     There is a smart shower at 5 P.M., and in the midst of it a hummingbird is busy about the flowers in the garden, unmindful of it, though you would think that each big drop that struck him would be a serious accident.

9. (US, Southern, dated) Intense in feeling; painful. Used usually with the adverb intensifier right.

   He raised his voice, and it hurt her feelings right smart.

   That cast on his leg chaffs him right smart.

10. (archaic) Efficient; vigorous; brilliant.
    • Dryden

      The stars shine smarter.

11. (archaic) Pretentious; showy; spruce.

    a smart gown

12. (archaic) Brisk; fresh.

    a smart breeze

Noun

smart (plural smarts)

1. A sharp, quick, lively pain; a sting.
2. Mental pain or suffering; grief; affliction.
   • Milton

     To stand 'twixt us and our deserved smart.

   • Spenser

     Counsel mitigates the greatest smart.

3. Smart-money.
4. (slang, dated) A dandy; one who is smart in dress; one who is brisk, vivacious, or clever.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Fielding to this entry?)

Derived terms

• gedeelde smart is halve smart
• met smart
• smartengeld

Declension