smoke
(noun, verb)
past tense: smoked
LISTEN
Black smoke.
Smoke is ‘the white, black or gray air above a fire.’
- My clothes smell of the smoke from the fire.
If you smoke, it means that ‘you breathe in the smoke from tobacco, usually through a cigarette.’
- Is it OK if I smoke here?
If you smoke food, it means that ‘you put it in a place with smoke, because you want it to taste of smoke.’
- They smoke the salmon for 12 hours before they sell it.
Related words
A smoke alarm is something that makes a loud noise when there is smoke. People usually have them in their houses, so that they will know if there is a fire. For example, “My smoke alarm makes a noise every time I cook.”
In pop culture
Thank You for Smoking is a movie about a tobacco businessman called Nick Naylor. He works for a group of tobacco companies, and speaks to the government for them. His job is to ask the government to do things for the tobacco companies. Nick is very good at speaking and making people agree with him. In this video from the movie, Nick tells his son that he’s never wrong. He says that he can always win a debate. All he has to do is show that the other person is wrong. Then everyone thinks that he’s right. (You can read exactly what he says under the video on the YouTube page.) What is Nick and Joey’s debate about: sport or ice cream?
There are other meanings of smoke.
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