smut

plural smuts

1. uncountableSoot.

   Synonyms: filth

2. countableA flake of ash or soot.

   “Do I have a smut on my nose, Mr. Donovan? You've been staring at me for a full minute. It's most disconcerting, you know.”

   2012, Kasey Michaels, A Masquerade in the Moonlight

   2 more examples

   She reached it soon after half-past two. She found its gloomy nineteenth-century façade, black with the smuts of ninety years, a little daunting, and mounted its broad steps in some trepidation. But she rang the bell hard and knocked firmly.

   1915, Edgar Jepson, “The Reluctant Duke”, in Happy Pollyooly: The Rich Little Poor Girl, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 135

   “You can rely on me!” Varya said, still more earnestly and enthusiastically, still leaning heavily on the counter, noticing briefly and forgetting at once that her bare elbow had crushed a stray smut from the Primus mender's booth.

   1989, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, translated by Harry Willetts, August 1914, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 56

3. uncountableSexually vulgar material; something that is sexual in a dirty way; pornographic material.

   The semiology of smut remains fairly unchanging: pasties, thongs, fetishwear-lite, simulated masturbation with the most unlikely of objects.

   2013 October 9, Suzanne Moore, “Sex is everywhere you look, but the semiology of smut never changes”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   1 more example

   It is no use to say, well, your anthrostate requires smut to be shielded, but your neighbor’s antrhostate^([sic]) says he can show anything anywhere. The neighbor’s behavior affects you, so you have to have the same rules.

   2014 June 9, Hans Noel, “Polystate: A Not-So-Bad Book About a Very Bad Idea”, in Washington Monthly

   Synonyms: filth · Antonyms: fluff

4. uncountableObscene language; ribaldry; obscenity.

   He does not stand upon decency […] but will talk smut, though a priest and his mother be in the room.

   2026 November 8 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “SUNDAY, May 25, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 39; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC

5. countableuncountablebiologyAny of a range of fungi, mostly Ustilaginomycetes, that cause plant disease in grasses, including cereal crops; the disease so caused.

   If the petals of your garden dianthus (pinks) are stained brown, they too are victims of similar smut.

   2021 June 16, Phil Gates, “Country diary: in the fight to survive, red campion is a surprise battleground”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

6. countableuncountablebusinessBad, soft coal containing earthy matter, found in the immediate locality of faults.
7. archaiccountableslangA copper boiler.

present singular third person smuts · participle present smutting · participle past smutted · past smutted

1. ambitransitiveTo stain (or be stained) with soot or other dirt.

   it bears a very good Crop , and seldom smuts

   1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   But the Nis did not forget it to the maids; for the following Sunday when they were going to the dance, be contrived, unknown to them, to smut their faces all over, so that when they got up to dance, every one that was there burst out a laughing at them.

   1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 231

   Synonyms: befoul, smutch, smutty, soil, assoil, beclart, bedaub, bedirty

2. transitiveTo taint (grain, etc.) with the smut fungus.

   Mildew also falls upon Corn, and smuts it

   1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC

3. intransitiveTo become tainted by the smut fungus.

   It smutted to a far greater degree than the year before, say three fourths, or more. I obtained but little more than the seed sown, and that was handsome wheat. This failure I imputed to the same supposed cause which operated the last year.

   1836, New England Farmer, volume 14, page 313

4. transitiveTo clear of the smut fungus.

   to smut grain for the mill