Smouldering

adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act by which something smoulders; residual heat. figuratively, sometimes

    "the smoulderings of the Thirty Years War"

Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of smoulder form-of, gerund, participle, present
Adjective
  1. 1
    Burning slowly, producing smoke but no flame. UK

    "And if we meet again, some evil chance / Will make the smouldering scandal break and blaze / Before the people, and our lord the King."

Adjective
  1. 1
    showing scarcely suppressed anger wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
angrysmoldering

Example

More examples

"I left Holmes seated in front of the smouldering fire, and long into the watches of the night I heard the low, melancholy wailings of his violin, and knew that he was still pondering over the strange problem which he had set himself to unravel."

Etymology

From smoulder + -ing.

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