Chapter Slug-abed to Snakes in his Boots of S by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Smash Come to smash - to ruin. Smashed to pieces, broken to atoms. Smash is a corruption of mash; Latin, mastico, to bite to pieces. (See Slope .)

“I have a great mind to ... let social position go to smash.”- Eggleston: Faith Doctor, p. 63.

Smec (in Hudibras). A contraction of Smectymnuus, a word made from the initial letters of five rebels-
   Stephen Marshal.
   Edward Calamy.
   Thomas Young.
   Matthew Newcomen.
   William Spurstow, who wrote a book against Episcopacy and the Common Prayer. (See Notarica.)

“The handkerchief about the neck,
Canonical cravat of Smec.”
Butler: Hudibras, pt. i. 5.

Smectymnuans Anti-Episcopalians.

Smectymnuus (See Notarica .)

Smell (an acute sense). James Mitchell was deaf, dumb, and blind from birth, “but he distinguished persons by their smell, and by means of the same sense formed correct judgments as to character.” (Nineteenth Century, April, 1894, p. 579.)

Smell a Rat (To). To suspect something about to happen. The allusion is to a cat or dog smelling out vermin.
   I smell treason. I discern treason involved; I have some aim that would lead to treason.

Smelling Sin Shakespeare says, “Do you smell a fault?” (King Lear, i. 1); and Iago says to Othello, “One may smell in this a will most rank.” Probably the smell of dogs may have something to do with such phrases, but St. Jerome furnishes even a better source. He says that St. Hilarion had the gift of knowing what sins or vices anyone was inclined to by simply smelling either the person or his garments; and by the same faculty he could discern good feelings and virtuous propensities. (Life of Hilarion, A.D. 390.)

Smells of the Lamp Said of a literary production manifestly laboured. Plutarch attributes the phrase to Pytheas the orator, who said, “The orations of Demosthenes smell of the lamp,” alluding to the current tale that the great orator lived in an underground cave lighted by a lamp, that he might have no distraction to his severe study.

Smelts (Stock-Exchange term), meaning “English and Australian copper shares.” (See Stock-Exchange Slang .)

Smiler, the name of a drink, is a mixture of bitter beer and lemonade. In the United States, a drink of liquor is called a “smile,” and the act of treating one at the bar is giving one a “smile.” Of course this is metaphorical. (See Shandy-Gaff .)

Smith A proper name. (See Brewer .)

Smith of Nottingham Ray, in his Collection of Proverbs, has the following couplet:-

“The little Smith of Nottingham,
Who doth the work that no man can.”

   Applied to conceited persons who imagine that no one is able to compete with themselves.

Smith's Prize-man One who has obtained the prize (£25), founded in the University of Cambridge by Robert Smith, D.D. (once master of Trinity), for proficiency in mathematics and natural philosophy. There are annually two prizes, awarded to two commencing Bachelors of Arts.

Smithfield The smooth field (Anglo-Saxon, smethe, smooth), called in Latin Campus Planus, and described by Fitz-Stephen in the twelfth century as a “plain field where every Friday there is a celebrated rendezvous of fine horses brought thither to be sold.”

Smoke To detect, or rather to get a scent, of some plot or scheme. The allusion is to the detection of robbers by the smoke seen to issue from their place of concealment.
   No smoke without fire. Every