Smoulder
noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 smoke; smother obsolete
"The smoulder stops our nose with stench."
- 2 a fire that burns with thick smoke but no flame wordnet
- 3 Alternative form of smolder. alt-of, alternative
"Dry and wormeaten, a spark upon them became a smoulder, and a smoulder a blaze."
- 4 A disease of narcissus and related flowers caused by the fungus Botrytis narcissicola, and characterized by dark brown lesions on the leaves.
"When grown as ornamentals it is important to inspect crops and physically remove rogue cultivars and other off-types, but whatever narcissus are grown for they should be inspected for signs of stem nematod lesions ('spickels'), disease 'primaries' (such as smoulder) and virus symptoms."
- 1 Alternative form of smolder. British, alt-of, alternative, intransitive
"Lightning may blast and blacken, but it rarely gives rise to widespread fire. Decaying vegetation may occasionally smoulder with the heat of its fermentation, but this again rarely results in flames."
- 2 burn slowly and without a flame wordnet
- 3 To smother; to suffocate; to choke. transitive
"They preassed forward vnder their ensignes, bearing downe such as stoode in their way, and with their owne fire smouldered and burnt them to ashes"
- 4 have strong suppressed feelings wordnet
Example
More examples"If the fire isn't doused properly with water, it will continue to smoulder all night."
More for "smoulder"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.