smack n.1
(orig. US)1. a try, a ‘go’; thus have a smack at, to have a go at, to make an attempt at.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Country-Wife IV iii: Your stingy country coxcomb keeps his wife from his friends as he does his little firkin of ale for his own drinking, and a gentleman can’t get a smack on’t. | |
| High Life Below Stairs II i: He has had a Smack of every sort of Wine, from humble Port to Imperial Tokay. | |
 | Works 271: If you’ve whiskey in play, / To oblige you, I’ll come take a smack of it. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Manchester Spy (NH) 21 Sept. n.p.: ‘Docile as a young gal when she’s goin’ to catch the fast smack o’ ’lectric telegraph’ . | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Robbery Under Arms (1922) 256: I’d like to have a smack at you before you go into the Church. | |
| Marvel 22 Oct. 7: Stand him on his feet, Sammy, and let me hab anoder smack at him. | |
| letter in No Parachute (1968) 9 Dec. 197: They’re terrifically keen about having a smack at the Hun. | |
| (con. WWI) Gloss. Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: smack. [...] an attempt. | |
| This Gutter Life 199: I’ll have a smack at him, anyway. | |
| We Were the Rats 154: Within the next few days Jerry’s going to have his smack at us. | |
| Singing Sands 168: ‘Well, we do have bright lights in London.’ ‘Yes. Maybe I’ll have another smack at London. London’s all right’. |
2. (UK und.) an oath given in Court [one kisses the Bible].
| Select Trials ‘Thomas Beck for Robberies’ Apr. 356: Prisoner. He comes to me in Newgate, and says, Damn me if I a’ n’t sorry to see you here: and if a Smack will do ye any Good, it’s at your Service . |
3. a kiss [SE 17C–early 19C].
| Knights in Works (1799) I 74: Stout hearty smacks that would have made your mouth water. | |
| Homer Travestie (1764) I 99: Enough he’d got of kiss and smack, / And found ’twas time to travel back. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | The Jolly Beggars in Works (1842) 11/1: He stoitered up an’ made a face; Then turn’d an’ laid a smack on Grizzie. | |
| Sporting Mag. July VIII 186/2: I [am] perfect in every branch of the art – from a hearty smack to the faint salute. | |
| Blue Devils 7: If I might be so bold as just, for once, to take a smack at your lips, Annette. | |
| Doctor Syntax, Picturesque (1868) 13/1: Your lips, my dear, are sweet as honey: / So one smack more – and there’s your money. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Tom and Jerry; Musical Extravaganza I ii: Tip a farewell smack to your bit of muslin. | |
| ‘Mr and Mrs Jim Crow’ in Jim Crow’s Song-Book 5: Pretty Miss Jim Crow, / Give me now a smack. | |
| Hillingdon Hall I 213: Thereupon he gave her such a smack, as caused the footman [...] to start and snicker outright. | |
| Sam Slick’s Wise Saws II 193: They kissed and were reconciled. ‘Well,’ sais I [...] ‘if you weren’t such an awful jealous pair, I would like to have that smack passed round.’. | |
| Uncommercial Traveller (1898) 349: Heard the sound of a smack – a smack which was not a blow. | |
| Edinburgh Eve. News 28 Apr. 2/6: A lady out west is lecturing on ‘kissing.’ The subject seems to have a smack to it. | |
| Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday 8 May 7/1: Some lovers’ quarrels begin, and some end with a smack. | |
| Lantern (N.O.) 2 Apr. 2: Finally reuniting them with a smack and a squeeze. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 5 May 10/2: [A] fair thing in spectacles suddenly grabbed him round the neck, pinned a badge to his coat, and kissed him a hard one on the cheek. I was two floors up, yet the ‘smack’ sounded like a box in the ear. | |
| [perf. Michael Nolan] ‘“Come In”, Said Widdy Malone’ 🎵 Sure to kiss her how could I decline? / She gave me one back - such a beautiful smack. | |
| Phila. Eve. Bulletin 5 Oct. 40/5: Here are a few more terms and definitions from the ‘Racket’ vocabulary: [...] ’smack,’ a kiss. | |
| Really the Blues 208: [He] ran up to that tree [and] gave it a big smack. | |
| ‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2 43: Smack, n. [...] A kiss. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | Totally True Diaries of an Eighties Roller Queen 🌐 7 Aug. Peter is such a puppy. He gave me one smack goodbye. |
4. a portion, i.e. of food or drink.
| Age (London) 26 June 55/3: Curiosity led me to [...] take a smack of ‘genuine Port,’ which it appears, the proprietors can command through their connections in Portugal. |
5. a liking for [SE smack, enjoyment, appreciation].
| Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 28 May n.p.: The young clerk [...] take [sic] a smack at his fine dishes and a look at his pretty daughter. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
| (con. 1940s) Confessions 209: Him telling me he went a great smack on leeches. | |
| Slanguage. |
6. a telling-off, a punishment.
| Dagonet Ballads 84: I felt when that grey chucked us over as Providence meant it, maybe, / As a smack for a-sellin’ a critter as had given her best days to me. |
7. a blow, a slap; also fig. use.
| Bell’s Life in Sydney 31 Jan. 1/6: He [...] popped in a smack with his left on Caunt’s right eye. | |
| Sam Sly 14 Apr. 3/3: [H]e was not thought anything more of for giving old Th—ins a smack in the eye. | |
| Leics. Mercury 30 Nov. 2/4: [headline] A Real ‘Smack’ on the Kisser. | |
| Barman & Barmaid 12 July 6/1: We had a smack at the Railway Companies last week on account of overcrowding. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 23 July 21/4: Such a sentence as ‘Tom received a tidy smack on the spectacle beam,’ leaves no doubt in one’s mind as to where the blow fell, and but little as to the force with which it was propelled. | |
| Sporting Times 1 Jan. 10/1: Did not [he] promptly accept the wager, and win it with a smack that touched the plaister and tapped the claret at the same time, to the chagrin of the bruiser. | |
| ‘ The Making of Mac’s’ in Man with Two Left Feet 132: The young feller took a smack at him. | |
| Phila. Eve. Bulletin 5 Oct. 40/5: Here are a few more terms and definitions from the ‘Racket’ vocabulary: [...] ’smack,’ a blow. | |
| Confessions of a Gunman 224: He said: ‘Get the hell out of here,’ and give me a smack in the face. | |
| They Die with Their Boots Clean 122: One smack from that right ’and and yer jaw’s just the place where yer teef used to be. | |
| Absolute Beginners 147: They take a smack at you, and run. | |
| Crust on its Uppers 33: A real parachutist’s smack right on the kisser. | |
| Sir, You Bastard 46: You could have received a smack in the face. | |
| ‘Cash and Curry’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Why don’t you chaps get out of the way before someone gets a smack in the ear! | |
| in Living Dangerously 57: I’ll give them grief, like a smack in the mouth. | |
| Chopper 3 23: A punch is tossed and one of the Aussie boys cops a smack in the mouth. | |
| (con. 1943) Coorparoo Blues [ebook] ‘Go downstairs and give that clown Ed a smack in the chops’. |
8. in senses of money, which one ‘smacks down’.
(a) a pound sterling.
| Sporting Times 25 Feb. 5/2: Three quidlets apiece, or p’r’aps five—p’r’aps ten— / And so the smacks went rolling. |
(b) (US Und.) a form of confidence trick based on matching pennies; also attrib.
| (con. 1905–25) Professional Thief (1956) 21: Within a few months one of them filled in for a small part in a smack touch (coin-matching racket). | |
| Sister of the Road (1975) 308: Another common trick of crooked gambling [...] is the ‘match’ or the ‘smack’ in which three women match pennies or nickels and often two of them will cheat the other woman. | |
| Big Con 307: The smack. An intricate short-con game based on matching pennies. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| (con. 1920s) Legs 67: Son, what you were bucking is a con game older than Moses. It’s called ‘the smack.’ It gets its name from the belt on the jaw that the mark gets when the con men have him clipped. |
(c) (US tramp) a dollar.
| The Movie Man in Ten ‘Lost’ Plays (1995) 188: I’ll bet you that smack. | |
| ‘Zigzags of Treachery’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 122: I had gone to see the doc, and had demanded a hundred thousand cool smacks. | |
| Young Man of Manhattan 177: Does that one thousand five hundred and ninety-seven dollars include, by any chance, the twenty smacks you borrowed from me before the fight in Philly? | |
| We Who Are About to Die 200: The shoes I wore in here were Hanans, worth fifteen or twenty smacks. | |
| ‘On Broadway’ 23 Nov. [synd. col.] He got exactly ten bites, which at five smacks per bite equals exactly one-half yard as they measure it on Broadway. | |
| Price Is Right 88: This baby is worth six or seven hundred smacks to the herd. | |
| Dear ‘Herm’ 16: He [...] uses Eau-de-Colon costs 20 smacks a bottle. |
9. (US black) sexual intercourse.
In derivatives
(US black) physically violent.
| Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 smacktastic Definition: either describing or implying the use of force of the backhand on a defiant prostitute or any other woman. Example: Ho, slow your roll less I get smacktastic on yo ass! |
In phrases
to attack.
| London Courier 20 July 2/2: After the appearance of the mob [...] the butler [...] expressed his wish to put up lights [...] but they answered, ‘No, d—n your lights, no! we’ll not have lights, we’ll have a smack at your house!’ They then commenced the attack. | |
| Isle of Wight Times 5 June 5/5: He said two or three times that he should like to have a smack at me, and knowck my — head off. | |
| Aberdeen jrnl 27 Nov. 6/6: ‘Just discovered a recruit stowed on board [...] he stowed himself away so as to have a smack at the Boers’. | |
| Lincoln Star (NE) 26 July 24/4: If our fellows cluld have a smack at your fellows, and your fellows have a smack at our fellows, it would make for a good understanding all round. | |
| Scotsman 19 Dec. 6/4: Like most overtrained soldiers, a large proportion of haganah would like ‘to have a smack at the enemy’. |
1. (US black) to hit someone.
| Central N.J. Home News (New Brunswick, NJ) 16 May E3/2: I’m gonna lay the smack down on your candy ass. | |
| Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 smack down, lay the Definition: to beat severely. Example: Tyrone you get yo ass out and get yo mamma some chicken wings, and bread sticks, befo’ I lay the smack down on yo ass! | |
| Surviving Twilight 160: [...] ten fully loaded magazines so I could lay the smack down just in case they got a little belligerent. |
2. (US) to talk aggressively.
| Tulare Advance-Register (CA) 5 Aug. 11/3: [headline] King of the Jungle lays the smack down [...] urging his callers to ‘trade smack’ (talk trash). | |
| Index-Jrnl (Greenwood, SC) 5 Oct. 2/1: That’s the day Big Daddy is gonna lay the smack down on a bunch of wannabe spelling bee champions. | |
| Longview News-Jrnl (TX) 10 Jan. C6/5: The Rock inspired the show’s title with his famous ‘Lay the smack down’ trash talking. |
to hit, to assault.
| College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Put the smack down (verb phrase) To intervene in a harsh manner. | |
| ‘Smack Down’ [poem] 🌐 I laugh at your physique and say your mama’s fat / So please allow me to remove my watch / While I put the smack down on yo ass, byatch. | |
| Mean Chicks 46: You’re not afraid to put the smack down on the Teaser when she’s getting on your case. |
see separate entry.
(Aus.) an unpleasant surprise.
| Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 88: ‘What a smack in the gob - especially when the cheese in the pudding club again’. |
In exclamations
(US teen) a reaction to something astonishing.
| ‘I’ll Decide That’ at Paradiseislost.com 🌐 Oh smack, finally a car worthy of blastin’ Gin Blossoms and my new Duran Duran/DJ Jazzy Jeff mix tapes!! |