smug

Etymology

Possibly from Middle Low German smuk (“lithe, delicate, neat, trim”) although the g of the English word is not easily explained. From the Low German derived also North Frisian smok, Danish smuk and Swedish smukk (now obsolete or dialectal). The ultimate source should be Proto-Germanic *smeuganą. Compare Middle High German gesmuc (“ornament”) and smücken (“to dress, to adorn”), both ultimately from smiegen (“to press to, insert, wrap, to nestle”), hence German schmiegen, Schmuck and schmücken. The adjective schmuck, however, was borrowed from Low German. See smock for more.

adj

1. Irritatingly pleased with oneself; offensively self-complacent, self-satisfied.
   Kate looked extremely smug this morning.
2. Showing smugness; showing self-complacency, self-satisfaction.
   a smug look on her face
3. (obsolete) Studiously neat or nice, especially in dress; spruce; affectedly precise; smooth and prim.
   They be so smug and smooth. 1556, Raphe Robynson, More’s Utopia: The English Translation thereof
   the smug and scanty draperies of his style 1828, Thomas De Quincey, “Elements of Rhetoric”, in Blackwood's Magazine

verb

1. (obsolete, transitive) To make smug, or spruce.
2. (obsolete, transitive, slang) To seize; to confiscate.
3. (obsolete, transitive, slang) To hush up.