Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. US) wit, intelligence.

1963		W.C. Anderson Penelope 113: Y’all really got the smarts.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 17: If the smarts are there, you’ll be all right.
1986		R. Campbell In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 118: It didn’t take a lot of smarts to know that some mechanic would be running the car through for repairs at night.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 96: He was three years older than me, but far younger in smarts.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 52: She’s beautiful but she’s got the smarts as well.
2005		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 4 220: The police let rip with more man power, more fire power and more smarts.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 250: ‘She’s not smart enough.’ ‘Unless she wasn’t depending on her smarts’.
2015		S. King Finders Keepers (2016) 168: he might not yet be able to grow the biker moustache he saw in his dreams, but he had balls as well as smarts.
2016		D. Whish-Wilson Old Scores [ebook] But the young man who’d been riding Candice was sober, which at least showed a degree of smarts.
2020		(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 18: ‘[P]laying Whac-A-Mole with that kid’s melon. Maybe you knocked some smarts into him’.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 307: ‘Mr Ricky - is there no end to your smarts?’.