smarts


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smart

 (smärt)
adj. smart·er, smart·est
1.
a. Having or showing intelligence; bright. See Synonyms at intelligent.
b. Canny and shrewd in dealings with others: a smart negotiator.
2.
a. Amusingly clever; witty: a smart quip; a lively, smart conversation.
b. Impertinent; insolent: That's enough of your smart talk.
3. Energetic or quick in movement: a smart pace.
4. Fashionable; elegant: a smart suit; a smart restaurant; the smart set. See Synonyms at fashionable.
5. Capable of making adjustments that resemble those resulting from human decisions, chiefly by means of electronic sensors and computer technology: smart missiles; smart machines.
intr.v. smart·ed, smart·ing, smarts
1.
a. To cause a sharp, usually superficial, stinging pain: The slap delivered to my face smarted.
b. To be the location of such a pain: The incision on my leg smarts.
c. To feel such a pain.
2. To suffer acutely, as from mental distress, wounded feelings, or remorse: "No creature smarts so little as a fool" (Alexander Pope).
n.
1. Sharp pain or anguish: the smart of the wound.
2. smarts Slang Intelligence; expertise: a reporter with a lot of smarts.
Phrasal Verb:
smart off Informal
To speak or act impertinently.
Idiom:
right smart New England & Southern US
A lot; a considerable amount: "We have read right smart of that book" (Catherine C. Hopley).

[Middle English, stinging, keen, alert, from Old English smeart, causing pain.]

smart′ly adv.
smart′ness n.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

smarts

(smɑːts)
pl n
slang chiefly US know-how, intelligence, or wits: street smarts.
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
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References in classic literature ?
If any bagman of that day could have caught sight of the little neck-or-nothing sort of gig, with a clay- coloured body and red wheels, and the vixenish, ill tempered, fast-going bay mare, that looked like a cross between a butcher's horse and a twopenny post-office pony, he would have known at once, that this traveller could have been no other than Tom Smart, of the great house of Bilson and Slum, Cateaton Street, City.
Nor you neither, says you; not smart-- none of the pair of us smart. But dash my buttons!
The infantry who had been stopped crowded near the bridge in the trampled mud and gazed with that particular feeling of ill-will, estrangement, and ridicule with which troops of different arms usually encounter one another at the clean, smart hussars who moved past them in regular order.
He'd take him back, and put him to hoeing and digging, and "see if he'd step about so smart." Accordingly, the manufacturer and all hands concerned were astounded when he suddenly demanded George's wages, and announced his intention of taking him home.
He always brushed my mane and tail with water and my hoofs with oil before he brought me to the door, to make me look smart; but as to cleaning my feet or looking to my shoes, or grooming me thoroughly, he thought no more of that than if I had been a cow.
(PETER, SOURLY: "Your Uncle Roger thought he was pretty smart." FELICITY, SEVERELY: "Uncle Roger IS smart.
To do him justice, he did every thing in his power to promote their unreserve, by making the Miss Steeles acquainted with whatever he knew or supposed of his cousins' situations in the most delicate particulars,--and Elinor had not seen them more than twice, before the eldest of them wished her joy on her sister's having been so lucky as to make a conquest of a very smart beau since she came to Barton.
In testimony of the extent to which he smarted, Mr Fledgeby came wallowing out of the easy-chair, and took another roll on the carpet.
'Yes,' said the mother, 'if only someone would come who would have her.' At length a man came from a distance and wooed her, who was called Hans; but he stipulated that Clever Elsie should be really smart. 'Oh,' said the father, 'she has plenty of good sense'; and the mother said: 'Oh, she can see the wind coming up the street, and hear the flies coughing.' 'Well,' said Hans, 'if she is not really smart, I won't have her.' When they were sitting at dinner and had eaten, the mother said: 'Elsie, go into the cellar and fetch some beer.' Then Clever Elsie took the pitcher from the wall, went into the cellar, and tapped the lid briskly as she went, so that the time might not appear long.
A smart guard jumped out, giving a whistle, and after him one by one the impatient passengers began to get down: an officer of the guards, holding himself erect, and looking severely about him; a nimble little merchant with a satchel, smiling gaily; a peasant with a sack over his shoulder.
Mary saw that it was a smart carriage and that it was a smart footman who helped her in.
He returned such glances as fell upon him with fierce insolence; he was indeed somewhat of a strange figure in his ill-fitting and inappropriate clothes amongst a gathering of smart people.