smut

Meanings

Noun

• Soot.
• A flake of ash or soot.
• Sexually vulgar material; something that is sexual in a dirty way; pornographic material.
• Obscene language; ribaldry; obscenity.
• Any of a range of fungi, mostly Ustilaginomycetes, that cause plant disease in grasses, including cereal crops; the disease so caused.
• Bad, soft coal containing earthy matter, found in the immediate locality of faults.

Verb

• To stain (or be stained) with soot or other dirt.
• To taint (grain, etc.) with the smut fungus.
• To become tainted by the smut fungus.
• To clear of the smut fungus.

Related

Similar words

• filth

Origin

• From Middle English smutten ("to defile, debase"), related to German Schmutz and schmutzen. schmutz.
• Compare also Old English smitta ("smear; blot; mark; stain; pollution"), Old English besmītan.