smoulder

present singular third person smoulders · participle present smouldering · participle past smouldered · past smouldered

1. UKalternativeintransitiveAlternative form of smolder.

   Lightning may blast and blacken, but it rarely gives rise to widespread fire. Decaying vegetation may occasionally smoulder with the heat of its fermentation, but this again rarely results in flames.

   1895 May 29, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter XI, in The Time Machine: An Invention, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC

2. transitiveTo smother; to suffocate; to choke.

   Individual grievance will continue to smoulder him.

   1963, India. Parliament. Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha Debates, page 7015

   4 more examples

   They preassed forward vnder their ensignes, bearing downe such as stoode in their way, and with their owne fire smouldered and burnt them to ashes

   1577, Raphael Holinshed, Historie of England

   Time Which lays its hand on battlements and towers, And smoulders them all to dust has committed its ravages upon this ancient castle.

   1876, Rev. J. Bailey, “Carisbrooke Castle, Isle of Wight”, in The Christian messenger, volume 12, page 35

   Before kindling the fire of jealousy remember it will consume others afterwards but first it will fill your heart and soul with a suffocating bitter smoke and smoulder every pore of your body.

   2015, Gopal Das. Sonkia, 110 Lessions to Live Life Blooming

   In any event Scheurs (1997: 188) acknowledged that the Stockholm conference recognized and respected sovereignty but also mentioned that it sought to restrict it and not smoulder it.

   2019, Muhammed Haron, Connecting South-South Communities, page 287

1. obsoletesmoke; smother

   The smoulder stops our nose with stench.

   1573, George Gascoigne, A Hundreth Sundry Flowres

2. alternativeAlternative form of smolder.

   The smoulder in his eyes dimmed, and he winced, half bending in agony.

   2016, K. M. Frontain, The Disposition of Ashes

   1 more example

   Dry and wormeaten, a spark upon them became a smoulder, and a smoulder a blaze.

   1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company

3. A disease of narcissus and related flowers caused by the fungus Botrytis narcissicola, and characterized by dark brown lesions on the leaves.

   When grown as ornamentals it is important to inspect crops and physically remove rogue cultivars and other off-types, but whatever narcissus are grown for they should be inspected for signs of stem nematod lesions ('spickels'), disease 'primaries' (such as smoulder) and virus symptoms.

   2002, Gordon R Hanks, Narcissus and Daffodil: The Genus Narcissus, page 116