Definition

1. Adjective:

   • Intelligent and quick-thinking: Having or showing a quick-witted intelligence and the ability to learn and understand things quickly.
   • Fashionable and stylish: Neat, trim, and stylish in appearance.
   • Quick and brisk: Characterized by sharp, vigorous movement or action.
   • Severe or sharp: Causing a sharp, stinging pain or a severe, forceful effect.
   • Impertinent or cheeky: Showing a lack of respect in a bold, often witty way.

2. Noun:

   • A sharp, stinging pain: A sudden, localized feeling of sharp pain or distress.

3. Verb (intransitive):

   • To feel a sharp, stinging pain: To cause or experience a sharp, often superficial pain.
   • To feel mental distress or irritation: To feel upset, annoyed, or resentful.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:

  • She is a very smart student who always gets top grades. (Intelligent)
  • He wore a smart new suit to the interview. (Stylish)
  • They set off at a smart pace. (Brisk)
  • The smart blow knocked the glass from his hand. (Severe)
  • Don't get smart with your teacher! (Impertinent)

• Noun:

  • He felt the smart of the antiseptic on his cut.

• Verb:

  • My eyes smart from the smoke.
  • He still smarts from the criticism he received.

Advanced Usage

• "Smart aleck/smart-ass" (noun, informal, often derogatory): A person who is irritatingly clever or confident in making critical remarks.

  • He's such a smart aleck, always correcting people.

• "Smart money" (noun phrase): Money bet or invested by those with expert knowledge or inside information.

  • The smart money is on the incumbent winning the election.

• "To play it smart" (idiomatic phrase): To act in a clever or prudent way.

  • If you play it smart, you'll save some money for the future.

Variants and Related Words

• Smartly (adverb): In an intelligent, brisk, or stylish manner.
  • She answered the question smartly. / He was smartly dressed.
• Smartness (noun): The quality of being smart.
• Smart-en (verb, rare): To make smarter or more stylish.
• Smartphone (noun): A mobile phone with advanced computing capability.

Synonyms

• Adjective (Intelligent): Clever, bright, sharp, intelligent.
• Adjective (Stylish): Chic, fashionable, elegant, dapper.
• Adjective (Brisk): Quick, brisk, lively, vigorous.
• Verb/Noun (Pain): Sting, hurt, ache, pain.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Smart from/under: To feel distressed or resentful because of (something).
  • The team is still smarting from their defeat last season.

Related Idioms

• "Look smart!": Hurry up! (British English).
  • Look smart, the bus is coming!
• "A smart cookie" (informal): A clever, shrewd person.
  • She's a smart cookie; she'll figure out a solution.
• "Smart as a whip": Very intelligent or quick-witted.
  • The new intern is smart as a whip.

Adjective

1. capable of independent and apparently intelligent action
   • smart weapons
2. quick and brisk
   • I gave him a smart salute
   • we walked at a smart pace
3. painfully severe
   • he gave the dog a smart blow
4. improperly forward or bold
   • don't be fresh with me
   • impertinent of a child to lecture a grownup
   • an impudent boy given to insulting strangers
   • Don't get wise with me!
5. characterized by quickness and ease in learning
   • some children are brighter in one subject than another
   • smart children talk earlier than the average
6. elegant and stylish
   • chic elegance
   • a smart new dress
   • a suit of voguish cut
7. showing mental alertness and calculation and resourcefulness

Noun

1. a kind of pain such as that caused by a wound or a burn or a sore

Verb

1. be the source of pain