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smite

verb
/smaɪt/

Etymology

From Middle English smiten, from Old English smītan (“to daub, smear, smudge; soil, defile, pollute”), from Proto-West Germanic *smītan, from Proto-Germanic *smītaną (“to sling; throw; smear”), from Proto-Indo-European *smeyd- (“to smear, whisk, strike, rub”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian smiete (“to throw, toss”), West Frisian smite (“to throw”), Dutch smijten (“to fling, hurl, throw”), German Low German smieten (“to throw, chuck, toss”), German schmeißen (“to fling, throw”), Danish smide (“to throw”), Swedish smita (“to run off (to)”), Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐍃𐌼𐌴𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (bismeitan, “to besmear, anoint”).

  1. derived from *smeyd-✻ — “to smear, whisk, strike, rub”
  2. inherited from *smītaną✻ — “to sling; throw; smear”
  3. inherited from *smītan✻
  4. inherited from smītan — “to daub, smear, smudge; soil, defile, pollute”
  5. inherited from smiten

Definitions

  1. To hit

    To hit; to strike.

    • Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
    • That elf-maiden smote with her hand so white, “Sorrow and sickness on thee alight” That elf-maiden smote with her cap so small, “No more shall priest's benison on thee fall!”
    • A harp can give out but a certain quantity of sound, however heavily it is smitten.

  2. To strike down or kill with godly force.

    • And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand. And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go.

  3. To injure with divine power.

  4. ›+ 6 more definitions

    1. To kill violently

      To kill violently; to slay.

      • "She is sitting in the great hall even now to do justice upon those who would have smitten thee and the Lion."

    2. To put to rout in battle

      To put to rout in battle; to overthrow by war.

    3. To afflict

      To afflict; to chasten; to punish.

      • Let us not mistake the goodness of God, nor imagine that because he smites us, therefore we are forsaken by him.
      • A country deprived of the Ganges is ſmitten; a family without learning is ſmitten; a woman without a child is ſmitten; a ſacrifice without the Brahman's rights is ſmitten.

    4. To strike with love or infatuation.

      • Bob was smitten with Laura from the first time he saw her.
      • I was really smitten by the color combination, and soon repainted the entire house.
      • See what the charms that smite the simple heart, // Not touch'd by Nature, and not reach'd by art.

    5. A heavy strike with a weapon, tool, or the hand.

      • Beale, who had not been driving very well, took a smite at his ball and sent it curving far away to the left into a mess of gorse of bramble bushes.

    6. A river in Nottinghamshire, with its headwaters in Leicestershire, England, which joins…

      A river in Nottinghamshire, with its headwaters in Leicestershire, England, which joins the River Devon, near Shelton.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for smite. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA