Definition

1. 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.

2. 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

1. creative activity (writing or pictures or films etc.) of no literary or artistic value other than to stimulate sexual desire
2. an offensive or indecent word or phrase
3. any fungus of the order Ustilaginales
4. destructive diseases of plants (especially cereal grasses) caused by fungi that produce black powdery masses of spores
5. a black colloidal substance consisting wholly or principally of amorphous carbon and used to make pigments and ink

Verb

1. affect with smut or mildew, as of a crop such as corn
2. become affected with smut
   • the corn smutted and could not be eaten
3. stain with a dirty substance, such as soot
4. make obscene
   • This line in the play smuts the entire act