smut
/smʌt/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Noun:
- Obscene or indecent material: Creative works (writing, pictures, films) considered to have no literary or artistic value other than to arouse sexual desire.
- A dirty mark; a smudge: A black or dirty spot, often from soot or grime.
- An obscene or indecent word or phrase: A vulgar or offensive term.
- A plant disease: A destructive disease of plants, especially cereal grasses, caused by fungi of the order Ustilaginales, which produce black, powdery spore masses.
- Soot; black carbon: A black colloidal substance, chiefly amorphous carbon, used in making pigments and ink.
Verb:
- To stain or blacken with dirt or soot: To make something dirty.
- To affect with smut (the plant disease): To infect a plant, especially a cereal crop, with smut fungus.
- To make obscene: To taint or corrupt with indecent or vulgar elements.
Usage Examples
Noun:
- The magazine was accused of publishing smut. (Referring to obscene material)
- There was a smut of soot on the windowsill. (Referring to a dirty mark)
- He told a crude joke full of smut. (Referring to indecent language)
- The wheat crop was ruined by smut. (Referring to the plant disease)
Verb:
- The chimney smutted the white curtains. (To stain with soot)
- The humid weather smutted the corn. (To infect with the fungal disease)
- The comedian's routine smutted an otherwise family-friendly show. (To make obscene)
Advanced Usage
- "Smutty" (Adjective): Obscene, indecent, or dirty.
- He made a smutty remark.
- In a botanical/agricultural context: Refers specifically to the fungal disease and its causative agents.
- Ustilago maydis is a fungus that causes corn smut.
Variants and Related Words
- Smutty (adj.): Characterized by or containing obscenity.
- Smut fungus (n.): Any fungus of the order Ustilaginales that causes smut disease.
- Smut mill (n.): A historical term for a mill where lampblack (a type of smut) was produced.
Synonyms
- Noun (obscene material): Pornography, filth, dirt.
- Noun (dirty mark): Smudge, smear, grime, soot.
- Noun (plant disease): Blight, fungus.
- Verb (to stain): Blacken, soil, begrime.
- Verb (to make obscene): Debase, corrupt, vulgarize.
Phrasal Verbs / Common Collocations
- To be full of smut: To contain a lot of obscene material or language.
- That novel is full of smut.
- Corn smut / wheat smut: Specific names for the disease affecting those crops.
- Farmers fear an outbreak of wheat smut.
Related Idioms
- No specific common idioms center solely on the word "smut." It is typically used in its literal or descriptive senses mentioned above.
Noun
- creative activity (writing or pictures or films etc.) of no literary or artistic value other than to stimulate sexual desire
- an offensive or indecent word or phrase
- any fungus of the order Ustilaginales
- destructive diseases of plants (especially cereal grasses) caused by fungi that produce black powdery masses of spores
- a black colloidal substance consisting wholly or principally of amorphous carbon and used to make pigments and ink
Verb
- affect with smut or mildew, as of a crop such as corn
- become affected with smut
- the corn smutted and could not be eaten
- stain with a dirty substance, such as soot
- make obscene
- This line in the play smuts the entire act