Definition of "smoky"
smoky
adjective
comparative smokier, superlative smokiest
Quotations
[We] never had better fires in England, then in the dry, ſmoaky houſes of Kecoughtan: […]
1624, Richard Pots, William Tankard, G. P., William Simons, compiler, “Chap. VIII. Captaine Smiths Iourney to Pamavnkee.”, in John Smith, The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles: […], London: […] I[ohn] D[awson] and I[ohn] H[aviland] for Michael Sparkes, book 3; reprinted in The Generall Historie of Virginia, [...] (Bibliotheca Americana), Cleveland, Oh.: The World Publishing Company, 1966, page 74
[…] even the smoky air of one of the most smoky streets of the suburbs is chearful, and salubrious, to the oppression I felt in the chamber we have just left […]
1775, Samuel Jackson Pratt, “A Moral, and Sentimental Excursion”, in Liberal Opinions, upon Animals, Man, and Providence, volume 2, London: G. Robinson and J. Bew, page 143
Filled with or enveloped in tobacco smoke.
Quotations
“Say, little coon, let’s see you hit a step for the boys! […] ”“I can’t,” Sandy said, frowning instead of smiling, and growing warm as he stood there in the smoky circle of grinning white men. “I don’t know how to dance.”
1930, Langston Hughes, chapter 20, in Not Without Laughter, New York: Scribner, published 1995, page 214
Quotations
[…] is it IThat drive thee from the sportive court, where thouWast shot at with fair eyes, to be the markOf smoky muskets?
c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene ii]
The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. […] It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber. Other liquids produced in the refining process, too unstable or smoky for lamplight, were burned or dumped.
2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847
Of a colour or colour pattern similar to that of smoke.
Quotations
[…] the broken walls and roofs were distinguishable even at that distance, and sometimes a part, which had been repaired, contrasted its colour with the black and smoky hues of the remainder.
1795, Ann Radcliffe, “Metz”, in A Journey Made in the Summer of 1794, through Holland and the Western Frontier of Germany, London: G.G. and J. Robinson, page 179
There is more clear gold and scarlet in our old country mornings; more purple, brown, and smoky orange in those of the new.
1879, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Across the Plains: Leaves from the Notebook of an Emigrant between New York and San Francisco”, in Across the Plains: With Other Memories and Essays, London: Chatto & Windus, […], published 1892, page 9
Having a flavour or odour like smoke; flavoured with smoke.
Quotations
[S]ome Dutch officers complained that the ſoup was ſmoaky, and the beef was tough, we adventurers declared that we never had taſted a more delicious repaſt; [...]
1796, J[ohn] G[abriel] Stedman, chapter XXX, in Narrative of a Five Years’ Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana, on the Wild Coast of South America; […], volume II, London: J[oseph] Johnson, […], and J. Edwards, […], page 392
Resembling or composed of smoke.
Quotations
And now the sky was a bright sea sown with islands; they shrank and crumbled and drifted away, islands no more, but a multitude of plumes and flakes and smoky wreaths hastily scudding, for the sun had lifted his tranquil eye on the heavens […]
1914, James Stephens, The Demi-Gods, London: Macmillan, Book 4, Chapter 34, p. 293
Quotations
Shepheard I take thy word,And trust thy honest offer’d courtesie,Which oft is sooner found in lowly shedsWith smoakie rafters, then in tapstrie halls,And courts of Princes […]
1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, page 12
The room smelt close and unwholesome; the walls were dirt-discoloured; and the ceiling blackened. There was an old smoky bust over the mantel-shelf, and a dusty clock above the dock […]
1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […]
(music) Having a dark, thick, bass sound.
Quotations
[…] the sombre and magnificent Davis fronts both his Quartet and Gil Evans’s orchestra, pouring out a succession of smoky and sonorous solos […]
1962, Philip Larkin, “Billie’s Golden Years,” The Daily Telegraph, 17 October, 1962, republished in All What Jazz: A Record Diary, 1961—1971, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1985, p. 73
The organ took on a dark, smoky sonority at evening service, and there was no doubt that the organ was adapting its normal sounds to accompany God’s own sepulchral responses […] to those prayers that were offered to him.
1981, Wole Soyinka, chapter 1, in Aké: The Years of Childhood, New York: Vintage, published 1983, page 1
(obsolete) Obscuring or insubstantial like smoke.
Quotations