Smack

/smæk/ · noun

Meaning

A distinct flavor, especially if slight..

Definitions by Sense

1. A distinct flavor, especially if slight.
2. A slight trace of something; a smattering.
3. (slang, uncountable) Synonym of heroin.
4. (Northern England) A form of fried potato; a scallop.
5. (transitive) To get the flavor of.
6. (intransitive) To have a particular taste; used with of.
7. (intransitive) To indicate or suggest something; used with of.
8. A small sailing vessel, commonly rigged as a sloop, used chiefly in the coasting and fishing trade and often called a fishing smack

Example Sentences

rice pudding with a smack of cinnamon

I did not call him fool, and vex my friend, / But quietly allowed experiment, / Encouraged him to dust his drink, and now / Grate lignum vitæ now bruise so-called grains / Of Paradise, and now, for perfume, pour / Distilment rare, the rose of Jericho, / Holy-thorn, passion-flower, and what know I? / Till beverage obtained the fancied smack.

But take it: if the smack is sour / The better for the embittered hour; […]

He was not sailorly, and yet he had a smack of the sea about him too.

I like my cousins in Holland immensely, but I feel more sib to the Northerners. Your description of Lofoten is fine. I can see them. They must be enchanting in their way, cod's head and tails or no. There is a fine eau de Javelle smack about a Dutch canal, by the way, that takes[…]

Claude overdosed on smack in a Chicago flophouse three years later.

He soon smacked the taste of physic hidden in this sweetness.

1820-25, Charles Lamb, Essays of Elia He had his tea and hot rolls in a morning, while we were battening upon our quarter-of-a-penny loaf — our crug — moistened with attenuated small beer, in wooden piggings, smacking of the pitched leathern jack it was poured from.

Synonyms for smack

Antonyms for smack

Related Words

Word Forms

• smacks
• smacking
• smacked

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

Practice and Learn More

Frequently Asked Questions