smug

CEFRC1

/smʌɡ/

adjective · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Too pleased with yourself and unaware of your faults.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Extra detail

    Showing smugness; showing self-complacency, self-satisfaction.

Examples

  • Don't be smug! You could have hurt yourself.

  • His smug behavior is offensive.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. Studiously neat or nice, especially in dress; spruce; affectedly precise; smooth and prim.

  2. irritatingly pleased with oneself; offensively self-complacent, self-satisfied.

verb

Extra meaning

  1. to adopt an offensively self-complacent expression.

More examples

In context

  • There are so many smug people.

  • Kate looked extremely smug this morning.

  • a smug look on her face

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

After winning the race by a large margin, he had a blank smile that annoyed everyone.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

Originally "spruce, neat," from Low German smuk (“pretty”), from Middle Low German smuk (“lithe, delicate, neat, trim”), although the g of the English word is not easily explained. The ultimate source should be Proto-West Germanic *smeugan (“to crawl, creep”). From the Low German derived also North Frisian smok, Danish smuk and Swedish smukk (now obsolete or dialectal). Compare also 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.