Smicker

//ˈsmɪkə(ɹ)// adj, verb

adj, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To look amorously or wantonly. archaic, intransitive

    "[…] Maskall, must you be smickering after wenches, while I am in calamity?"

  2. 2
    To look or smile seductively or amorously. Scotland, intransitive
  3. 3
    To laugh or smile in a sniggering or leering way; smirk. Scotland, intransitive

    "I gave him a questioning look and he hurled a pillow at me. “Who you a look pon^([sic]) so?” “Me baby father” He smickered."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Elegant; fine; attractive, beautiful. archaic

    "No, his deep-reaching spirit could not brook The fond addiction to such vanity; Regardful of his honour he forsook The smicker use of court-humanity."

  2. 2
    Amorous; wanton. archaic
  3. 3
    Handsome, spruce; smart, dapper. archaic

    "A smicker boy, a lither swain, Heigh ho, a smicker swain, That his love was wanton fain, […]"

Example

More examples

"No, his deep-reaching spirit could not brook The fond addiction to such vanity; Regardful of his honour he forsook The smicker use of court-humanity."

Etymology

From Middle English smiker, from Old English smicer, smicor (“beauteous, beautiful, elegant, fair, fine, neat, tasteful”), from Proto-West Germanic *smikr, from Proto-Germanic *smikraz (“fine, elegant, delicate, tender”), from Proto-Indo-European *smēyg- (“small, delicate”), from Proto-Indo-European *smē-, *smey- (“to smear, stroke, wipe, rub”). Cognate with Middle High German smecker (“neat, elegant”), Ancient Greek σμικρός (smikrós), μικρός (mikrós, “small, short”), Lithuanian smeigti (“to lunge, thrust, jab”), Latin mīca (“crumb, morsel, bit”). For the verb, compare Swedish smickra (“to flatter, coax, wheedle, butter up”), Danish smigre (“to flatter”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.