Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see separate entries.

see under apple n.¹

see separate entries.

see under smart-arse.

see smarty-pants n.

(US Und.) money gained through crime.

1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 199/1: Smart buck or dollar. Money obtained by cleverness, skill or guile.
1952		C. Hamilton Men of the Und. 289: While the smart bucks are rolling in, the average crook never gives a thought to reform.
2001		Palm Beach Post (FL) 17 Aug. 49/1: [headline] ‘Smart bucks’ is chump’s change to disguise what is suspected.

see smart-arse n.

see smart aleck n.

see smart-aleck adj.

(US) to stare in a challenging manner.

2000		Eminem ‘Drug Ballad’ 🎵 You have the right to remain violent and start wilin’ / Start a fight with the same guy that was smart eyin’ you.
2012		M. McBride Frank Sinatra in a Blender [ebook] The fuck with the handlebar mustache was gone, but two of his buddies were giving me the smart eye.

(Aus./N.Z.) one who considers themselves clever.

1960		A. Buzo Front Room Boys Scene viii: Bit of a smart fart, eh?
1973		A. Buzo Macquarie 11: Yeah, thats been said, smart fart.
1981		R. Bausch Take Me Back 14: You’re a smart fart for an eleven year-old kid.
1996		P. Carter Double Dare 116: You got him out there, smart fart. You can watch him.
2002		M.G. Cannon The Seer 14: Better play it straight, hey? This dude must be one smart fart!
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 193: smart fart A know-it-all From 1930s.

a knowledgable individual, or one who believes themselves to be.

1903		Engineer 13 June 553/1: What makes me want to rest, it is to have some smart guy come into the engine room and tell me that he has learned all there is to learn.
1912		A.H. Lewis Apaches of N.Y. 242: There’s nothin’ in that high society stuff. A smart guy like me could learn his way t'rough in a week.
1928		J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 23: I waded right through the curriculum of crime [...] I was an apt pupil and a smart guy.
1933		G.T. Fleming-Roberts ‘The Silenced Partner’ in Ten Detective Aces Oct. 🌐 We’re a couple of smart guys [...] Didn’t we clean up near fifty grand.
1947		J. Archibald ‘When a Body Meets a Body’ in Popular Detective Sept. 🌐 He was a smart gee an’ they never could pin any thin’ on him.
1951		D. Dressler Parole Chief 15: ‘All right, smart guy!’ he sneered.
1959		E. De Roo Go, Man, Go! 76: That’s from thinking other drivers could crack up, but it wouldn’t happen to me. I was a smart guy.
1966		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 70: Some smart guys who think they’re wise, / but they can’t conquer their downfall.

see separate entries.

see smarty-pants n.

(US teen) a good-looking, popular individual.

1960

Baltimore Sun (MD) Sun. Mag. 4 Dec. 9/1: Twitter MacAfee was the smart play of Blight Area 12, but although she pounded some ground at most of the blasts with Bugsy, the kook always blew the pad with a grub.

1. (US teen) a show-off.

1947

Baltimore Sun 22 June Magazine 6/5: Smart stuff . . . show off.

2. (US drugs) cocaine.

1981

D. Jenkins Baja Oklahoma 53: Dove made Juanita a promise: Candy would never have any ‘smart stuff’ in her pocket. He would never let her ‘hold’ .

3. (US black) deceitful, underhand activity.

1994

C. Major Juba to Jive.

(US campus) academically high-flying, but low on common sense and social skills; also as n., one who reads and studies.

1989		P. Munro Sl. U. 43: That girl is really book smart — she gets straight As, but she forgot she had to enroll for next quarter’s classes.
1991		D. Gaines Teenage Wasteland 97: Many were suspicious and resentful of ‘book smarts.’ Nobody in my home ‘read’; we watched television.

(US) stupid or reckless.

1908		Oregon Dly Jrnl (Portland, OR) 21 June 21/3: Patricia Goldsmith , the central figure of ‘Half-Smart Set,’ a novel.
1927		in D. Hammett Big Knockover 322: Don’t get the idea he’s half-smart. He’s dangerous.
1950		F. Riesenberg Waterfront Reporter 47: Ogle gets some half-smart ideas, but he doesn’t lie [HDAS].
1962		S. Paige Maybe I’ll Pitch Forever 143: ‘Where’s that half-smart girl?’ I asked the clerk. I said it loud enough so Miss Brown could hear it.
1989		Spin Feb. 57/1: Ernest P. Worrell is a throwback to [...] every half-smart half-assed hayseed in the history of American comed.
2010		E. Naughton Hale’s Gate 44: He’s about half-smart, I know, but he's basically harmless.

see separate entry.

(US) informed, aware.

1929

D. Hammett Red Harvest (1965) 21: I come all the way down here to rope you, and you’re smarted up.

(US black) to cheek, to ‘backtalk’.

1957		‘Weldon Hill’ Onionhead (1958) 213: ‘I’ll knocka goddam block offa any subbabish at smarts off at me’.
1960		(con. 1940s) D. MacCuish Do Not Go Gentle (1962) 170: Don’t smart off with me, Gilman.
1969		C. Sellers Where Have All the Soldiers Gone 114: ‘Don’t smart off at me, Yates’.
2000		W.T. Vollmann Royal Family 306: You smarting off to me, bitch?
2010		L. Berney Gutshot Straight [ebook] [O]ne time a dancer smarted off to the Whale and he slapped her so hard he broke her jaw.

(US) to pass over information, to explain.

1922		Wash. Times (DC) 21 Aug. 4/4: He smarts himself up on the parlor tricks that a dame falls for.
1926		D. Hammett ‘Assistant Murderer’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 139: If you think this is a nice place to talk about whatever you want to talk about, go ahead! But if you’re counting on me talking, too, you’d better smart me up.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 173: Smarten Up. – To advise or explain to; to detail a plan. An individual is said to be smart when knowing, wise or experienced, hence the application of the phrase.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 199/1: Smarten up. 1. To become, or to help another to become, sophisticated in the lore of the underworld.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 212: Terry had been sweating out whether or not to smarten him.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 818: smarten up – To advise or explain to.

see separate entry.