Smite

//smaɪt// name, noun, verb

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A river in Nottinghamshire, with its headwaters in Leicestershire, England, which joins the River Devon, near Shelton.
Noun
  1. 1
    A heavy strike with a weapon, tool, or the hand. archaic, rare

    "On the other hand , your soft-headed, softhearted sentimentalist, whose heart is in his waistcoat pocket, always at hand for use, he who picks out the pretty parts of modern novels, and the tender parts of affecting tales, never hears of two young people meeting one another, but he begins to think that a smite must follow."

Verb
  1. 1
    To hit; to strike. archaic

    "Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also."

  2. 2
    cause physical pain or suffering in wordnet
  3. 3
    To strike down or kill with godly force.

    "And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand. And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go."

  4. 4
    inflict a heavy blow on, with the hand, a tool, or a weapon wordnet
  5. 5
    To injure with divine power.

    "VERSE 12. And the fourth angel ſounded, and the third part of the ſun was ſmitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the ſtars, ſo as the third part of them was darkened, and the day ſhone not for a third part of it, and the night likewiſe. […] [T]his Jeſus which ſignifies the ſun, was ſmitten with persecution and ſufferings in the time of his miniſtry, that there could but a third part of his heavenly light ſhine upon the people of the Jews, and happy were thoſe that this light did ſhine upon."

Show 5 more definitions
  1. 6
    affect suddenly with deep feeling wordnet
  2. 7
    To kill violently; to slay.

    ""She is sitting in the great hall even now to do justice upon those who would have smitten thee and the Lion.""

  3. 8
    To put to rout in battle; to overthrow by war.

    "[…]and it turned out, if you just dumped pure oxygen and kerosene into the combustion chamber, the torpedo would travel at fairly-high speed... just instantaneously in all directions at once, disassembling itself, and any nearby people, with considerable enthusiasm. Explaining that this was entirely-unacceptable behavior for a torpedo that was designed to smite the Emperor's enemies didn't really tend to work out that well, since they hadn't yet invented the Machine Spirit, and, in any case, working out which bit of the torpedo you were supposed to talk to, or possibly scrape off the wall, was somewhat difficult once it had decided to launch a several-hundred-meter search into the realm of the honorable ancestors."

  4. 9
    To afflict; to chasten; to punish.

    "Let us not mistake the goodness of God, nor imagine that because he smites us, therefore we are forsaken by him."

  5. 10
    To strike with love or infatuation. figuratively

    "Bob was smitten with Laura from the first time he saw her."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English smiten, from Old English smītan (“to daub, smear, smudge; soil, defile, pollute”), from Proto-West Germanic *smītan, from Proto-Germanic *smītaną (“to sling; throw; smear”), from Proto-Indo-European *smeyd- (“to smear, whisk, strike, rub”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian smiete (“to throw, toss”), West Frisian smite (“to throw”), Dutch smijten (“to fling, hurl, throw”), German Low German smieten (“to throw, chuck, toss”), German schmeißen (“to fling, throw”), Danish smide (“to throw”), Swedish smita (“to run off (to)”), Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐍃𐌼𐌴𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (bismeitan, “to besmear, anoint”).

Etymology 2

From Middle English smiten, from Old English smītan (“to daub, smear, smudge; soil, defile, pollute”), from Proto-West Germanic *smītan, from Proto-Germanic *smītaną (“to sling; throw; smear”), from Proto-Indo-European *smeyd- (“to smear, whisk, strike, rub”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian smiete (“to throw, toss”), West Frisian smite (“to throw”), Dutch smijten (“to fling, hurl, throw”), German Low German smieten (“to throw, chuck, toss”), German schmeißen (“to fling, throw”), Danish smide (“to throw”), Swedish smita (“to run off (to)”), Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐍃𐌼𐌴𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (bismeitan, “to besmear, anoint”).

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