FromMiddle Englishsmothe,smethe, fromOld Englishsmēþe,smōþ, both fromProto-West Germanic*smanþī, of unknown origin. Cognate withScotssmuith(“smooth”),Low Germansmood andsmödig(“smooth, malleable, ductile”),Dutchsmeuïg(“smooth”) (from earliersmeudig).
smooth (comparativesmoother,superlativesmoothest)
- Having a texture that lacksfriction. Notrough.
1695,C[harles] A[lphonse] du Fresnoy, translated byJohn Dryden,De Arte Graphica. The Art of Painting, […], London: […] J[ohn] Heptinstall for W. Rogers, […],→OCLC:The outlines must besmooth,[…]imperceptible to the touch, and even, without eminence or cavities.
1907 August,Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, inThe Younger Set, New York, N.Y.:D. Appleton & Company,→OCLC:“A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron; and she looked it, always trim and trig andsmooth of surface like a converted yacht cleared for action. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable, […].
2005, Lesley Brown,Sophist, translation of original byPlato, page229e:Teaching that’s done by talking seems to have one rough path and another part which issmoother.
- Withoutdifficulty,problems, orunexpected consequences or incidents.
We hope for asmooth transition to the new system.
2011, Phil McNulty, “Euro 2012: Montenegro 2-2 England”, inBBC[1]:England's path to Poland and Ukraine next summer looked to be asmooth one as goals from Ashley Young and Darren Bent gave them a comfortable lead after 31 minutes.
2019 June 19, Elisabeth Malkin and Ana Swanson, “Mexico Ratifies Trade Deal With the U.S. and Canada”, inThe New York Times[2]:The path to approval has been bumpiest in Washington, where Democrats in Congress have raised concerns over Mexico’s enforcement of labor rights and environmental law — andsmoothest in Mexico, where the president has described the accord as a guarantee of stability for his country’s economy.
- Bland;glib.
- Flowing or uttered without check, obstruction, or hesitation; not harsh; fluent.
1670, John Milton,The History of Britain:the onlysmooth poet of those times
1737, [Alexander Pope],The FirstEpistle of the Second Book ofHorace, Imitated, London: […] T. Cooper, […],→OCLC,page16:VValler vvasſmooth; butDryden taught to join / The varying verſe, the full reſounding line, / The long majetſic march, and energy divine.
- Suave;sophisticated.
2003, T. Lewis Humphrey,The Price of Love,→ISBN, page279:He was sosmooth and handsome. He knew just what to say and when to say it.
- (of an action)Natural;unconstrained.
2006, Mary Kay Moskal, Camille Blachowicz,Reading for Fluency,→ISBN, page 3:In order for a reading to besmooth and effortless, readers must be able to recognize and read words accurately, automatically, and quickly.
- (of a motion)Unbroken.
- (chiefly of water)Placid, calm.
- (of an edge)Lackingprojections orindentations; notserrated.
1997, Christopher Dickey,Innocent Blood: A Novel,→ISBN, page91:Out of the handles flipped thesmooth blade and the serrated blade, which was dangerously sharp, the flathead screwdrivers, the Phillips screwdriver, the can opener, the awl.
- (of food or drink) Notgrainy; having aneven texture.
1997, Lou Seibert Pappas,Sorbets and Ice Creams,→ISBN, page19:A compact and stylish design, it produces 1 generous quart of excellent,smooth ice cream in 20 to 25 minutes.
- (of a beverage) Having apleasantlyrounded flavor; neitherrough norastringent.
- (mathematics, of a function) Havingderivatives of allfiniteorders at all points within the function’sdomain.
- (mathematics, of a number) Thatfactors completely into smallprime numbers.
- (linguistics, classical studies, of a vowel) Lacking markedaspiration.
- (of muscles, medicine) Involuntary andnon-striated.
- (having a texture lacking friction):even
- (without difficulty or problems):fluid
lacking friction, not rough
- Amharic:ለስላሳ(läslasa)
- Arabic:نَاعِم(nāʕim),أَمْلَس(ʔamlas)
- Egyptian Arabic:مالس(mālis),ناعم(nāʕim)
- Armenian:հարթ (hy)(hartʻ),ողորկ (hy)(oġork)
- Aromanian:buimatcu,duzi,ischiu
- Asturian:llisu (ast)
- Azerbaijani:hamar (az),rəvan
- Belarusian:гла́дкі(hládki)
- Bhojpuri:चिकन(cikan)
- Bulgarian:гла́дък (bg)(gládǎk)
- Burmese:ချော (my)(hkyau:)
- Catalan:llis (ca)
- Chamicuro:pya'sino
- Chechen:шера(šera)
- Cherokee:ᎤᏩᎾᏕᏍᎩ(uwanadesgi)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin:平滑 (zh)(pínghuá),光滑 (zh)(guānghuá, guānghua)
- Crimean Tatar:tegiz
- Czech:hladký (cs) m
- Dalmatian:lois
- Danish:glat (da)
- Dutch:glad (nl)
- Esperanto:glata (eo)
- Estonian:sile
- Even:булдути(ʙulduti)
- Finnish:sileä (fi)
- French:lisse (fr)
- Friulian:lis,vualîf
- Galician:liso (gl)
- Georgian:გლუვი(gluvi)
- German:glatt (de)
- Gothic:𐍃𐌻𐌰𐌹𐌷𐍄𐍃(slaihts)
- Greek:λείος (el) m(leíos),απαλός (el) m(apalós)
- Ancient:λεῖος(leîos),λισσός(lissós)
- Guaraní:sỹi
- Hawaiian:paheʻe(esp. of skin),ʻōmolemole(of glass, crystal)
- Hebrew:חָלָק (he)(khalak)
- Hindi:चिकना (hi)(ciknā)
- Hungarian:sima (hu)
- Icelandic:sléttur (is) m
- Ido:glata (io)
- Indonesian:halus (id),mulus (id)
- Ingrian:lakkia
- Ingush:шаьра(šära)
- Irish:caoin,mín
- Italian:liscio (it),mellifluo (it)
- Japanese:滑らかな (ja)(なめらかな, nameraka na)
- Kapampangan:malinatnat
- Kashubian:głôdczi
- Kazakh:тегіс(tegıs)
- Khiamniungan Naga:tǖlīnglīng
- Korean:매끄럽다 (ko)(maekkeureopda)
- Kurdish:
- Central Kurdish:لووس(lûs)
- Northern Kurdish:lûs (ku),hilû (ku)
- Latgalian:gluds,gludons
- Latin:glaber,lēvis (la),teres
- Latvian:gluds
- Luxembourgish:glat (lb)
- Macedonian:ма́зен(mázen),гла́док(gládok)(dialectal)
- Malay:licin (ms)
- Maori:māeneene,mōhanihani,newanewa,koutata,mohimohi
- Mbyá Guaraní:yxyĩ
- Middle English:smethe,smothe
- Moksha:вадря(vadrä)
- Mongolian:тэгш (mn)(tegš),гөлгөр (mn)(gölgör)
- Navajo:dilkǫǫh
- Northern Sami:livttis
- Occitan:lis (oc)
- Old Church Slavonic:
- Cyrillic:гладъкъ(gladŭkŭ)
- Old English:smēþe
- Old Occitan:lis
- Persian:لیز (fa)(liz)
- Polish:gładki (pl)
- Portuguese:liso (pt)
- Romanian:neted (ro),lin (ro),lis (ro)
- Romansch:glisch
- Russian:гла́дкий (ru)(gládkij)
- Scottish Gaelic:mìn,sèimh,socrach,tlàth
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic:гла̏дак
- Roman:glȁdak (sh)
- Sicilian:lisciu (scn)
- Slovak:hladký
- Slovene:gladek
- Sorbian:
- Lower Sorbian:gładki
- Upper Sorbian:hładki
- Spanish:liso (es),glaxo(water surface, Peru)
- Sundanese:lemes (su)
- Swahili:laini (sw)
- Swedish:jämn (sv),len (sv),hal (sv),slät (sv),glatt (sv)
- Tagalog:makinis
- Tahitian:hinuhinu
- Tarantino:lisse
- Telugu:నున్నటి(nunnaṭi)
- Thai:เรียบ (th)(rîiap)
- Tocharian B:ṣmare
- Turkish:pürüzsüz (tr),düz (tr)
- Ukrainian:гладки́й(hladkýj)
- Venetan:guałivo,gałivo
- Vietnamese:trơn (vi),mượt (vi)
- Vilamovian:głōt
- Volapük:smufik (vo)
- Welsh:llyfn (cy),esmwyth (cy)
- White Hmong:du
- Yiddish:גלאַט(glat)
- Zealandic:glad
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action: natural; unconstrained
edge: lacking projections or indentations; not serrated
food or drink: not grainy; having an even texture
beverage: having a pleasantly rounded flavor; neither rough nor astringent
mathematics, of a function: Having derivatives of all finite orders at all points within the function’s domain
linguistics, classical studies, of a vowel: lacking marked aspiration
smooth (comparativesmoother,superlativesmoothest)
- Smoothly.
1591 (date written),William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,[Act III, scene ii]:Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep.
smooth (pluralsmooths)
- Something that issmooth, or that goes smoothly and easily.
1860, Anne Manning,The Day of Small Things[3], page81:Things are often equalized by roughs andsmooths being set against one another.
- Asmoothing action.
2006, Julienne Van Loon,Road Story[4],→ISBN, page12:She brushes down her hair with a little bit of spit and asmooth of her hand and opens the bright green door, walking a few metres, squinting.
- A domesticanimal having a smoothcoat.
1916, William Ernest Castle, Sewall Wright,Studies of Inheritance in Guinea-pigs and Rats[5], page104:In the 4-toe stock there is a wide gap between the lowest rough and thesmooths which come from the same parents.
- A member of an anti-hippie fashion movement in 1970s Britain.
1999, Peter Childs, Mike Storry,Encyclopedia of Contemporary British Culture[6],→ISBN, page188:By the early 1970s, skinhead culture began to mutate into the variant ‘white ethnic’ styles of the suedeheads andsmooths.
- (statistics) Theanalysis obtained through asmoothing procedure.
1990, Wolfgang Härdle,Applied Nonparametric Regression[7],→ISBN, page17:Asmooth of the potato data set has already been given in Figure 1.2.
something which is smooth or easy
domestic animal having a smooth coat
member of an anti-hippie fashion movement in 1970s Britain
statistics: analysis obtained through a smoothing procedure
smooth (third-person singular simple presentsmooths,present participlesmoothing,simple past and past participlesmoothed)
- (transitive) To make smooth or even.
1961, William Gibson,The Miracle Worker[8],→ISBN, page37:Shesmooths her skirt, looking as composed and ladylike as possible.
- Synonym:smoothen
- (transitive) Toreduce to a particular shape or form bypressure; topress, toflatten.
- (transitive) To makestraightforward oreasy.
2007, Beth Kohn,Lonely Planet Venezuela, page379:Caracas can be a tough place but the tremendously good-natured caraqueñossmoothed my passage every step of the way.
- (transitive) Tocalm orpalliate.
- tosmooth a person's temper
- (statistics, image processing, digital audio) To capture important patterns in the data, while leaving out noise.
1999, Murray R. Spiegel, Larry J. Stephens,Schaum’s Outline of Theory and Problems of Statistics[9],→ISBN, page457:[…] the 7-month moving averages provide bettersmoothing of the data in this case than do the 3-month moving averages.
- (West Country) Tostroke; especially to stroke an animal's fur.
Can Ismooth your cat?
statistics: capture important patterns in the data, while leaving out noise
