English Explanatory Dictionary

smug

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Irritatingly pleased with oneself; offensively self-complacent, self-satisfied.
  2. Showing smugness; showing self-complacency, self-satisfaction.
  3. Studiously neat or nice, especially in dress; spruce; affectedly precise; smooth and prim.
verb
  1. To make smug, or spruce.
  2. to adopt an offensively self-complacent expression.
  3. To seize; to confiscate.
  4. To hush up.
noun
  1. The smuggling trade.

Pronunciation

smŭg /smʌɡ/ En-au-smug.ogg

Word forms

smug smugger smuggest smugs smugging smugged

Etymology

Originally "spruce, neat," from Low German smuk (“pretty”), from Middle Low German smuk (“lithe, delicate, neat, trim”), although the g of the English word is not easily explained. The ultimate source should be Proto-West Germanic *smeugan (“to crawl, creep”). From the Low German derived also North Frisian smok, Danish smuk and Swedish smukk (now obsolete or dialectal). Compare also Middle High German gesmuc (“ornament”) and smücken (“to dress, to adorn”), both ultimately from smiegen (“to press to, insert, wrap, to nestle”), hence German schmiegen, Schmuck and schmücken. The adjective schmuck, however, was borrowed from Low German. See smock for more.

Synonyms

complacent gloaty self-satisfied airy arrogant chesty authoritarian biggity big-headed blustery boastful bombastic buggish cocky conceited disdainful domineering egotistical entitled flatulent flaunting full of oneself glorious grandiose hankty haught haughty haut high-handed high-hat high and mighty highfalutin hoity-toity holier-than-thou hubristic hubristical imperious inflated insolent la-di-da orgulous ostentatious overbearing overweening pompous presumptuous pretentious priggish puffed up sanctimonious self-important snobbish snooty snotty stout stuck up supercilious thrasonic thrasonical toploftical

Derived words

smugfest smuggery smuggish smugly smugness unsmug
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