smart
verb/smɑːt/
/smɑːrt/
Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they smart | /smɑːt/ /smɑːrt/ |
| he / she / it smarts | /smɑːts/ /smɑːrts/ |
| past simple smarted | /ˈsmɑːtɪd/ /ˈsmɑːrtɪd/ |
| past participle smarted | /ˈsmɑːtɪd/ /ˈsmɑːrtɪd/ |
| -ing form smarting | /ˈsmɑːtɪŋ/ /ˈsmɑːrtɪŋ/ |
- [intransitive] smart (from something) to feel a sharp pain in a part of your body
- His eyes were smarting from the smoke.
- The wound was beginning to smart a little.
- I rubbed my smarting eyes.
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- [intransitive] to feel upset about a criticism, failure, etc.
- smart from something They are still smarting from the 4–0 defeat last week.
- smart over something He is still smarting over his humiliation in the election.
Word OriginOld English smeortan (verb), of West Germanic origin; related to German schmerzen; the adjective is related to the verb, the original sense (late Old English) being ‘causing sharp pain’; from this arose ‘keen, brisk’, which led to the current senses of ‘mentally sharp’ and ‘neat in a brisk, sharp style’.
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