Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A fishing boat sailing under various rigs, according to size, and often having a well used to transport the catch to market.
  • noun A distinctive flavor or taste.
  • noun A suggestion or trace.
  • noun A small amount; a smattering.
  • intransitive verb To have a distinctive flavor or taste. Used with of.
  • intransitive verb To give an indication; be suggestive. Often used with of:
  • intransitive verb To press together and open (the lips) quickly and noisily, as in eating or tasting.
  • intransitive verb To kiss noisily.
  • intransitive verb To strike sharply and with a loud noise.
  • intransitive verb To make or give a smack.
  • intransitive verb To collide sharply and noisily.
  • noun The loud sharp sound of smacking.
  • noun A noisy kiss.
  • noun A sharp blow or slap.
  • adverb With a smack.
  • adverb Directly.
  • noun Heroin.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To have a taste; have a certain flavor; suggest a certain thing by its flavor.
  • Hence, figuratively, to have a certain character or property, especially in a slight degree; suggest a certain character or quality: commonly with of.
  • noun A taste or flavor; savor; especially, a slight flavor that suggests a certain thing; also, the sense of taste.
  • noun Hence A flavor or suggestion of a certain quality.
  • noun Scent; smell.
  • noun A small quantity; a taste; a smattering.
  • noun Synonyms Flavor, Savor, etc. (see taste), tang.
  • noun Touch, spice, dash, tinge.
  • To smite or strike smartly and so as to produce a sharp sound; give a sharp blow to, especially with the inside of the hand or fingers; slap: as, to smack one's cheek.
  • To cause (something) to emit a sharp sound by striking or slapping it with something else: as, he smacked the table with his fist.
  • To part smartly so as to make a sharp sound: used chiefly of the lips.
  • To kiss, especially in a coarse or noisy manner.
  • To make a sharp sound by a smart parting of the lips, as after tasting something agreeable.
  • To kiss so as to make a smart, sharp sound with the lips; kiss noisily.
  • To come or go against anything with great force.
  • noun A smart, sharp sound made by the lips, as in a hearty kiss, or as an expression of enjoyment after an agreeable taste; also, a similar sound made by the lash of a whip; a crack; a snap.
  • noun A sharp, sudden blow, as with the flat of the hand; a slap.
  • noun A loud kiss; a buss.
  • In a sudden and direct or aggressive manner, as with a smack or slap; sharply; plump; straight.
  • noun A slooprigged vessel formerly much used in the coasting and fishing trade.
  • noun A fishing-vessel provided with a well in which the fish are kept alive; a fishing-smack.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Naut.) A small sailing vessel, commonly rigged as a sloop, used chiefly in the coasting and fishing trade.
  • adverb colloq. As if with a smack or slap.
  • noun Taste or flavor, esp. a slight taste or flavor; savor; tincture. Also used figuratively.
  • noun A small quantity; a taste.
  • noun A loud kiss; a buss.
  • noun A quick, sharp noise, as of the lips when suddenly separated, or of a whip.
  • noun A quick, smart blow; a slap.
  • noun slang a slang term for heroin.
  • intransitive verb To have a smack; to be tinctured with any particular taste.
  • intransitive verb To have or exhibit indications of the presence of any character or quality.
  • intransitive verb To kiss with a close compression of the lips, so as to make a sound when they separate; to kiss with a sharp noise; to buss.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Dutch or Low German smak, from smakken, to fling, dash.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English smæc.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Perhaps of Middle Flemish origin, or perhaps of imitative origin.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Probably variant of smeck, from Yiddish shmek, a sniff, swell, from shmekn, to sniff, smell, from Middle High German smecken, smacken, to smell, taste, from Old High German smac, smell, taste.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English smac, smak, smacke, from Old English smæċ ("taste, smatch"), from Proto-Germanic *smakkaz (“a taste”), from Proto-Indo-European *smegʰ-, *smeg- (“to taste”). Cognate with English dialectal smatch, Scots smak ("scent, smell, taste, flavour"), Saterland Frisian Smoak ("taste"), West Frisian smaak ("taste"), Dutch smaak ("taste"), German Schmack, Geschmack ("taste"), Swedish smak ("taste"). Akin to Old English smæccan ("to taste, smack"). More at smake, smatch.

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Examples

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  • A school of jellyfish

    November 16, 2007

  • A single-masted sailing vessel, fore-and-aft rigged like a sloop or cutter, and usually of light burden, chiefly employed as a coaster or for fishing, and formerly as a tender to a ship of war.

    December 18, 2007

  • WORD: smack

    EXAMPLE of American Heritage Dictionary definition ' intransitive v. To give an indication; be suggestive. Often used with of: "an agenda that does not smack of compromise” ( Time). ' ---- >

    ' High-speed trading has made the financial world even more of a casino game, allowing traders to pick off minuscule price movements in just thousandths of a second . . . We live in an age when pigs really do fly . . . And it all smacks of manipulation. '

    --- Al Lewis. "Caught in a Web". The Wall Street Journal, May 5, 2013.

    September 24, 2013