smart – English adjective declension

English adjective forms of smart

Adjective: smart

Comparison Forms

Synthetic

Comparativesmarter
Superlativesmartest

Perifrastic

Sample Sentences

  • I always preferred the church, and I still do. But that was not smart enough for my family. They recommended the army. That was a great deal too smart for me. [1811, [Jane Austen], chapter 19, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:]
  • smart car
  • smartcard
  • smartphone
  • “Imagine this,” says an advertising consultant named Barry Lowenthal. “I’m a smart toaster, and I’m collecting data on how many times the toaster is used.” [2018 December 18, Joe Pinsker, “The Coming Commodification of Life at Home”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 25 Jan 2019:]
  • a smart outfit
  • You look smart in that business suit.
  • He became tired of his girlfriend's smart remarks.
  • Don't get smart with me!
  • Who, for the poor renown of being smart / Would leave a sting within a brother's heart? [1728, Edward Young, Satire:]
  • I played a sentence or two at my butt, which I thought very smart, when my ill genius, who I verily believed inspired him purely for my destruction, suggested to him such a reply [1711 September 30 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “WEDNESDAY, September 20, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 175; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:]
  • The clerk gave Mr. Carlyle a knowing look, as of one smart man who will be appreciated by another. [1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC:]
  • smart skirmishes, in which many fell [1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, (please specify |book=I to XVI), in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the [Sheldonian] Theater:]
  • There is a smart shower at 5 P.M., and in the midst of it a hummingbird is busy about the flowers in the garden, unmindful of it, though you would think that each big drop that struck him would be a serious accident. [1860 July 9, Henry David Thoreau, journal entry, from Thoreau's bird-lore, Francis H. Allen (editor), Houghton Mifflin (Boston, 1910), Thoreau on Birds: notes on New England birds from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau, Beacon Press, (Boston, 1993), page 239]
  • How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience. [c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:]
  • a smart pain
  • He raised his voice; it hurt her feelings right smart.
  • That cast on his leg chaffs him right smart.
  • The stars shine smarter. [1697, Virgil, “Georgic 1”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:]
  • a smart gown
  • a smart breeze

Adjectives inflected like smart

sallow, smooth, slight, sleigh, sordid, somber, shweet, shrill, shrewd, yellow, yaller, hard knock, DRY, Greek, cut short, unquiet, unclean, indiscreet, chipper, straicht, etc. (List truncated at 20 adjectives)

Etymology

From Middle English smert, smart, from Old English smeart (“smarting, smart, painful”), from Proto-West Germanic *smart, from Proto-Germanic *smartaz (“hurting, aching”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)merd- (“to bite, sting”). Cognate with Scots smert (“painful, smart”), Old Frisian smert (“sharp, painful”).

Verbs referencing "smart"

German Adjectives smart, Swedish Adjectives smart, Finnish Adjectives maartti, Swedish Adjectives smärt, French Adjectives sma't.