smoky

Etymology

From Middle English smoky, smokie, equivalent to smoke + -y.

adj

1. Filled with smoke.
   a smoky cabin
   Some sate turning of spits, and the place being all smoaky, made me thinke on hell, for the ioynts of meat lay as if they had bene broyling in the infernall fier […] 1608, Thomas Dekker, The Belman of London, London: Nathaniell Butter
   […] even the smoky air of one of the most smoky streets of the suburbs is chearful, and salubrious, to the oppression I felt in the chamber we have just left […] 1775, Samuel Jackson Pratt, “A Moral, and Sentimental Excursion”, in Liberal Opinions, upon Animals, Man, and Providence, volume 2, London: G. Robinson and J. Bew, page 143
   1819, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Peter Bell the Third,” Part 3, in The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, London: Edward Moxon, 1839, p. 240, Hell is a city much like London— A populous and a smoky city;
   1. Filled with or enveloped in tobacco smoke.
      a smoky bar
      “Say, little coon, let’s see you hit a step for the boys! […]” “I can’t,” Sandy said, frowning instead of smiling, and growing warm as he stood there in the smoky circle of grinning white men. “I don’t know how to dance.” 1930, Langston Hughes, chapter 20, in Not Without Laughter, New York: Scribner, published 1995, page 214
      In the evenings he argued the toss at smoky meetings in pubs and school halls. 1974, John le Carré, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, London: Pan Books, published 1975, Part 2, Chapter 17, p. 134
2. Giving off smoke.
   a smoky oil lamp
   1894, George Santayana, Sonnet, in Sonnets and Other Verses, Cambridge, MA: Stone and Kimball, p. 5, Our knowledge is a torch of smoky pine That lights the pathway but one step ahead Across a void of mystery and dread.
   The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania.[…]It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber. Other liquids produced in the refining process, too unstable or smoky for lamplight, were burned or dumped. 2013-08-03, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847
3. Of a colour or colour pattern similar to that of smoke.
   The Pismire kinde of Aetius hath a smoky body, an ash-coloured neck, and the back as it were adorned with stars. 1658, Edward Topsell, The History of Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents, London: G. Sawbridge, et al, Book 2, Chapter 12, p. 1059
   […] the broken walls and roofs were distinguishable even at that distance, and sometimes a part, which had been repaired, contrasted its colour with the black and smoky hues of the remainder. 1795, Ann Radcliffe, “Metz”, in A Journey Made in the Summer of 1794, through Holland and the Western Frontier of Germany, London: G.G. and J. Robinson, page 179
   The saleswomen, with their all-black ensembles and smoky eyelids, were as open and affirming as the sight of RuPaul's spread legs in the Viva Glam lipstick ads. 2014, Janet Mock, Redefining Realness
4. Having a flavour or odour like smoke; flavoured with smoke.
   a smoky whisky
   […] thei abstain from a smoky peace of Bacon or hard salted and poudred biefe or suche lyke […] c. 1551, Thomas Beccon, chapter 9, in A Fruitful Treatise of Fasting, London: John Day
   I smelled it the moment I entered—that sweet smoky reek. 1990, Michael Cunningham, A Home at the End of the World, New York: Picador, published 1998, Part 1, p. 84
5. Resembling or composed of smoke.
   That in their smoakie rankes, his smothred light May set at noone, and make perpetuall night.
   […] I too gave notice to the various wild inhabitants of Walden vale, by a smoky streamer from my chimney, that I was awake. 1854, Henry David Thoreau, “House-Warming”, in Walden, Boston: Ticknor and Fields, page 271
   And now the sky was a bright sea sown with islands; they shrank and crumbled and drifted away, islands no more, but a multitude of plumes and flakes and smoky wreaths hastily scudding, for the sun had lifted his tranquil eye on the heavens […] 1914, James Stephens, The Demi-Gods, London: Macmillan, Book 4, Chapter 34, p. 293
6. Blackened by smoke.
7. (of a person's voice) Having a deep, raspy quality, often as a result of smoking tobacco.
   “Stop the York four-day stage!” said he, forcing his smoky voice through a world of throat-embracing shawl […] 1834, William Harrison Ainsworth, chapter 5, in Rookwood, volume 3, London: Richard Bentley, page 298
   Father laughed his smoky laugh. […] The smoky laughter like a bridge between them over your head. 1973, Patrick White, chapter 10, in The Eye of the Storm, New York: Viking, page 506
8. Attractive in a sensual way; sultry.
   There was still that smoky little thing about her. The sexy swaying walk, the dark voice. 1988, Don DeLillo, Libra, Penguin, published 1989, Part 1, 20 May, p. 124
   Frankly, I don’t think his smoky Armenian looks drew their attention so much as the languid elegance of his manner […] 2003, Lionel Shriver, “March 3, 2001”, in We Need to Talk About Kevin, London: Serpent’s Tail
9. (music) Having a dark, thick, bass sound.
   a few smoky jazz notes
   1962, Philip Larkin, “Billie’s Golden Years,” The Daily Telegraph, 17 October, 1962, republished in All What Jazz: A Record Diary, 1961—1971, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1985, p. 73, […] the sombre and magnificent Davis fronts both his Quartet and Gil Evans’s orchestra, pouring out a succession of smoky and sonorous solos […]
   The organ took on a dark, smoky sonority at evening service, and there was no doubt that the organ was adapting its normal sounds to accompany God’s own sepulchral responses […] to those prayers that were offered to him. 1981, Wole Soyinka, chapter 1, in Aké: The Years of Childhood, New York: Vintage, published 1983, page 1
   […] there emerged from the car a pair of the sort of legs which soundtrack editors are unable to see without needing to slap a smoky saxophone solo all over […] 1988, Douglas Adams, chapter 11, in The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, London: Pan Books, published 1989, pages 90–91
   Then, just as the music, slow and smoky, loads up the air, his smile bright as ever, he wrinkles his nose and turns away. 1992, Toni Morrison, Jazz, New York: Plume, published 1993, page 67
10. (obsolete) Giving off steam or vapour.
    1594, Thomas Kyd (translator), Cornelia (Cornélie) by Robert Garnier, London: Nicholas Ling and John Busbie, Act V, He wrencht it [his sword] to the pommel through his sides, That fro the wound the smoky blood ran bubling, Where-with he staggred;
    Dark was the Path, and difficult, and steep, 1717, “The Story of Orpheus and Eurydice”, in William Congreve, transl., Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books, translated by the most eminent hands, London: Jacob Tonson, page 334
11. (obsolete) Obscuring or insubstantial like smoke.
    […] to shewe them selfe playnely, to hate & deteste and abhorre vtterly, the pestylent contagyon of all suche smoky communycacyon. 1534, Thomas More, The answere to the fyrst parte of the poysened booke, which a namelesse heretyke hath named the souper of the lorde, London: Preface
    If besides vayne crakes of smoky speeches, ye shewe no demonstration of sounde proofe, why these bragges of yours should be true, let vs graunt your saying. 1581, Walter Haddon et al., translated by James Bell, Against Ierome Osorius Byshopp of Siluane in Portingall, London: John Daye, Book 3
    […] scrambling with such distracted violence for the smoaky honours, the nominal wealth, the intoxicating pleasures of a few hasty daies […] 1658, Richard Baxter, The Crucifying of the World by the Cross of Christ, London: Nevill Simmons, Preface
12. (obsolete) Suspicious; open to suspicion; jealous.
    1765, Samuel Foote, The Commissary, Act I, in The Works of Samuel Foote, London: George Robinson et al., 1799, Volume 2, p. 18, […] this old brother of ours tho’ is smoky and shrewd, and tho’ an odd, a sensible fellow;