smoking

Etymology 1

From Middle English smokynge, smokiende, from Old English smociende (“smoking”), from Proto-Germanic *smukōndz (“emitting smoke, smoking”), equivalent to smoke + -ing.

verb

1. present participle and gerund of smoke

adj

1. Giving off smoke.
   Yet had the whole train and all its bombs gone, had the engine crew merely jumped from the train and run as simple self-preservation would have suggested, or unhitched just the engine to make their escape faster, the whole town would have gone and most of the people with it, leaving just a smoking wasteland. Hundreds would have died. January 12 2022, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 43
2. (slang) Sexually attractive, usually referring to a woman.
   That woman is smoking!
3. (slang) Showing great skill or talent.
   The band put on a smoking performance.

Etymology 2

From Middle English smokyng, smokynge, equivalent to smoke + -ing.

noun

1. The act or process of emitting smoke.
2. The burning and inhalation of tobacco.
   Smoking can lead to lung cancer.
   He had the loudest voice of any drill sergeant, and seemed to enjoy the group smokings as well as the individual smokings. 2012, Montgomery J. Granger, Saving Grace at Guantanamo Bay: A Memoir of a Citizen Warrior
3. (by extension) The burning and inhalation of other substances, e.g. marijuana.
4. The act of exposing (something) to smoke; (by extension) the process by which foods are cured or flavoured by smoke
5. (slang, obsolete) A bantering; teasing; mockery.