English edit

Pronunciation edit

Verb edit

smoulder (third-person singular simple present smoulders, present participle smouldering, simple past and past participle smouldered)

  1. (intransitive, chiefly Britain) Alternative form of smolder
  2. (transitive) To smother; to suffocate; to choke.
    • 1577, Raphael Holinshed, Historie of England:
      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
    • 1876, Rev. J. Bailey, “Carisbrooke Castle, Isle of Wight”, in The Christian messenger, volume 12, page 35:
      Time Which lays its hand on battlements and towers, And smoulders them all to dust has committed its ravages upon this ancient castle.
    • 1963, India. Parliament. Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha Debates, page 7015:
      Individual grievance will continue to smoulder him.
    • 2015, Gopal Das. Sonkia, 110 Lessions to Live Life Blooming:
      Before kindling the fire of jealousy remember it will consume others afterwards but first it will fill your heart and soul with a suffocating bitter smoke and smoulder every pore of your body.
    • 2019, Muhammed Haron, Connecting South-South Communities, page 287:
      In any event Scheurs (1997: 188) acknowledged that the Stockholm conference recognized and respected sovereignty but also mentioned that it sought to restrict it and not smoulder it.

Noun edit

smoulder

  1. (obsolete) smoke; smother
    • 1573, George Gascoigne, A Hundreth Sundry Flowres:
      The smoulder stops our nose with stench.
  2. Alternative form of smolder.
    • 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company:
      Dry and wormeaten, a spark upon them became a smoulder, and a smoulder a blaze.
    • 2016, K. M. Frontain, The Disposition of Ashes:
      The smoulder in his eyes dimmed, and he winced, half bending in agony.
  3. A disease of narcissus and related flowers caused by the fungus Botrytis narcissicola, and characterized by dark brown lesions on the leaves.
    • 2002, Gordon R Hanks, Narcissus and Daffodil: The Genus Narcissus, page 116:
      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.

Anagrams edit