Talk:smoke

Reversion
Why was this edit reverted? Has no one else heard of this expression? 156.34.220.33 19:45, 7 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Probably the UK constituency didn't recognize it as valid US slang. I'll restore it now.  --Connel MacKenzie 19:48, 7 January 2008 (UTC)
 * The fact that it was in a completely redundant (and misplaced) section probably gave the impression that it was bogus (even though it is not.) --Connel MacKenzie 19:53, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

The Smoke
Should the definition "London" be in this entry or Smoke? - -sche 20:46, 9 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Capitalised form. Equinox ◑ 02:01, 18 February 2016 (UTC)

Australian and NZ senses
I've heard the NZ "beat" sense, or a similar sense, in the US, too, but I can't find it in other dictionaries. Dictionary.com has "to move, drive, ride, etc, very fast" as an intransitive sense, which is similar to the sense I'm thinking of, though I'm more familiar with it as a transitive ("they agreed to a street race, and she smoked him") than an intransitive verb. We also appear to be missing an obsolete sense "mock, tease", an Australian sense "to flee; to run off". - -sche (discuss) 01:58, 17 June 2012 (UTC)

See Tea room/2016/January. - -sche (discuss) 02:00, 18 February 2016 (UTC)

"to smoke out instead of upward, owing to imperfect draught"
This sense appears in Chambers 1908, evidently referring to a fire in a fireplace that emits unwanted smoke into the room. I'm not totally convinced it's a distinct sense; seems more contextual. Equinox ◑ 20:35, 18 July 2019 (UTC)


 * ✅ Ah, what the heck, added. Equinox ◑ 12:44, 14 May 2020 (UTC)

RFV discussion: July–August 2021
RFV of the adjective, which I think is just attributive use of the noun. I couldn't find adjectival examples of "very smoke" or "smokest", for example. (cork and brass provide examples of how the translations can be moved under the noun.) - -sche (discuss) 18:15, 6 July 2021 (UTC)


 * Not all adjectives are comparable. The second definition looks like an attributive use of the noun, but I think the first is probably real, although I haven't managed to dig up examples yet. Kiwima (talk) 03:28, 7 July 2021 (UTC)
 * "smoke" colour is used of cats. There are some uses at e.g. https://thelittlecarnivore.com/en/blog/cat-coat-silver-and-smoke-cats that could be interpreted as adjectival. Mihia (talk) 17:36, 7 July 2021 (UTC)


 * Fair point, Kiwima, though it seems unusual(?) for a colour to not be at least gradable with "very" (etc) unless it's a noun. The only example I can find of "cat is smoke" (a la "the cat is blue", etc) is [//en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Wiktionary:Sandbox&oldid=63119345 the "vapor of burning" noun] and not a colour. I did find [//en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Citations%3Asmoke&type=revision&diff=63119337&oldid=59606143 one book] about "mating a smoke-bred smoke cat with [...] a silver cat, as unmarked as possible, who possesses a smoke ancestor", but cites like that are explained by the attributive noun just as well as by positing an adjective (which is what makes this so hard). I tried to see if there might be a lemming argument for an adjective, but Dictionary.com, MW and Lexico only have smoke as a noun and verb. I tried to find any books where "smoke" might take "smokier" as a suppletive comparative, but didn't spot any yet. - -sche (discuss) 01:24, 9 July 2021 (UTC)


 * I agree it's a borderline or debatable case. At  there are examples such as "cats that [...] most likely were not smoke", "incorrectly registered as being smoke" and "not 100% sure if a specific cat was smoke or not". Cf. also slate, which we also list as an adjective, though I could not find any relevant hits for "very slate", and I would not expect "slater" or "slatest". Mihia (talk) 13:33, 9 July 2021 (UTC)

RFV-failed Kiwima (talk) 22:31, 7 August 2021 (UTC)