- [uncountable] the grey, white or black gas that is produced by something burning
- cigarette/tobacco smoke
- Plumes of black smoke could be seen rising from the area.
- The explosion sent a huge cloud of smoke into the sky.
- Clouds of thick black smoke billowed from the car's exhaust.
- smoke from something His eyes were smarting from the smoke from the fire.
- The smoke from their cigarettes curled upwards.
- The majority of people who die in fires die of smoke inhalation.
- Check your smoke detectors for dead batteries.
- The witch disappeared in a puff of smoke.
- I can definitely smell smoke.
Extra ExamplesTopics The environmenta2- Blue smoke curled up from her cigarette.
- Don't blow smoke in my face!
- Hundreds of people die each year as a result of exposure to second-hand smoke.
- I taught myself to blow smoke rings.
- The club had a smoke machine and laser show.
- When the smoke cleared we saw the extent of the damage.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- dense
- heavy
- thick
- …
- cloud
- column
- haze
- …
- belch
- belch out
- blow
- …
- belch
- billow
- come
- …
- plume
- ring
- signal
- …
- go up in smoke
- full of smoke
- thick with smoke
- …
- [countable, usually singular] (informal) an act of smoking a cigarette
- Are you coming outside for a smoke?
- He's in the back garden having a smoke.
- the Smoke(also the big smoke)[singular] (British English, informal) London, or another large city
Word OriginOld English smoca (noun), smocian (verb), from the Germanic base of smēocan ‘emit smoke’; related to Dutch smook and German Schmauch.
Idioms
See smoke in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee smoke in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishblow smoke (up somebody’s ass)
- (North American English, offensive, slang) to try to trick somebody or lie to somebody, particularly by saying something is better than it really is
go up in smoke
- to be completely burnt
- The whole house went up in smoke.
- if your plans, hopes, etc. go up in smoke, they fail completely
- Hopes of an early end to the dispute have gone up in smoke.
(there is) no smoke without fire (British English)
(North American English where there’s smoke, there’s fire)
- (saying) if something bad is being said about somebody/something, it usually has some truth in it
smoke and mirrors
- the fact of hiding the truth with information that is not important or relevant
- There's a lot of smoke and mirrors in the financing of this film.
a smoke-filled room
- (disapproving) a decision that people describe as being made in a smoke-filled room is made by a small group of people at a private meeting, rather than in an open and democratic way
Check pronunciation:
smoke