English

Noun

smack ‎(plural smacks)

1. A distinct flavor.
2. A slight trace of something; a smattering.
   • 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island

     He was not sailorly, and yet he had a smack of the sea about him too.

3. (slang) Heroin.

Derived terms

• foresmack

Translations

Verb

smack ‎(third-person singular simple present smacks, present participle smacking, simple past and past participle smacked)

1. (intransitive) To indicate or suggest something; used with of.

   Her reckless behavior smacks of pride.

   • Shakespeare

     All sects, all ages, smack of this vice.

2. (intransitive) To have a particular taste; used with of.
   • Charles Lamb, The Essays of Elia

     He had his tea and hot rolls in a morning, while we were battening upon our quarter-of-a-penny loaf — our crug — moistened with attenuated small beer, in wooden piggings, smacking of the pitched leathern jack it was poured from.

Derived terms

• smack of

Etymology 2

Smacks in a painting by Carlton Theodore Chapman, ca 1890 (Brooklyn Museum of Art).

From Middle Low German smack (Low German Schmacke, Schmaake ‎(“small ship”)) or Dutch smak.

Noun

smack ‎(plural smacks)

1. A small sailing vessel, commonly rigged as a sloop, used chiefly in the coasting and fishing trade and often called a fishing smack.

Translations

Etymology 3

From or akin to Dutch smakken ‎(“to fling down”), Plautdietsch schmaksen ‎(“to smack the lips”), regional German schmacken, Schmackes ‎(“vigour”) (compare Swedish smak ‎(“slap”), Middle Low German smacken, the first part of Saterland Frisian smakmuulje ‎(“smack”)).

Noun

smack ‎(plural smacks)

1. A sharp blow; a slap. See also: spank.
2. A loud kiss.
   • Shakespeare

     a clamorous smack

3. A quick, sharp noise, as of the lips when suddenly separated, or of a whip.

Translations

Verb

smack ‎(third-person singular simple present smacks, present participle smacking, simple past and past participle smacked)

1. To slap someone, or to make a smacking sound.
   • Benjamin Disraeli

     A horse neighed, and a whip smacked, there was a whistle, and the sound of a cart wheel.

2. (New Zealand) To strike a child (usually on the buttocks) as a form of discipline. (US spank)
3. To wetly separate the lips, making a noise, after tasting something or in expectation of a treat.
   • 1763, Robert Lloyd, “A Familiar Epistle” in St. James Magazine:

     But when, obedient to the mode / Of panegyric, courtly ode / The bard bestrides, his annual hack, / In vain I taste, and sip and smack, / I find no flavour of the Sack.

4. To kiss with a close compression of the lips, so as to make a sound when they separate.

Translations

Adverb

smack ‎(comparative more smack, superlative most smack)

1. As if with a smack or slap

   Right smack bang in the middle.

Derived terms

• smack-dab

Anagrams

• macks

Swedish

Noun

smack n

1. (in the phrase "inte ett smack") smidgeon, piece, small bit

See also

• inte ett smack