▪ I. smoulder, n.
(ˈsməʊldə(r))
Forms: 4–7, 9 U.S., smolder, 6, 9 smoulder.
[Of obscure formation; the first syllable may be related to LG. smölen, smäulen (also smälen, smelen), Du. smeulen, to smoulder, Flem. smoel, smul hot.
Discontinued about (or shortly after) 1600, and revived in the 19th cent.: see the note to the vb.]
1. Smother; smoky vapour; the result of smouldering or slow combustion.
| c 1325 Body & Soul 435 in Map's Poems (Camden) 345 The eorthe openede up anon, Smoke and smolder up ther wel. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xvii. 321 Whan smoke & smolder smyt in his syȝte. c 1440 Pallad. on Husb. i. 929 The fired nuttis smolder throgh shal fle This grettist hole. c 1450 Merlin xv. 248 Men myght se the smolder of the fire x myle longe. 1575 Gascoigne Flowers Wks. 49 The smoulder stops our nose with stench, the fume offends our eies. a 1626 Bp. Andrewes 96 Serm., Holy Ghost xi. (1661) 472 From blood and fire and the smolder of smoke. |
| 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. iii. i. viii, Lille too, black with ashes and smoulder. 1851 G. Borrow Lavengro III. 355 The smoulder and smoke of that fire-ball have rather bewildered my head. 1862 Thornbury Turner I. 315 That driving smoulder of fire..indicates the mouth of the fatal cave. |
2. A slow-burning fire or the ashes of this.
| a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VIII, 41 b, Of the fyer and smolder did ryse suche a smooke. 1561 J. Daus tr. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573) 115 b, It ascendeth..as a smoke out of great smolder. 1869 Blackmore Lorna D. (1889) 398 A barrow⁓load of the smoulder. |
▪ II. smoulder, v.
(ˈsməʊldə(r))
Forms: 5–7, 9– (now U.S.) smolder (7 -ther), 6 smoolder, smow(l)der, smoulther, 6– smoulder.
[f. prec.
During the 17th and 18th cents. both n. and vb. fell into disuse, although poets continued to employ the ppl. adj. smouldering, of which Johnson (1755) says ‘This word seems a participle; but I know not whether the verb smoulder be in use’. The revival of the verb in the 19th cent. was evidently due to Scott.]
† 1. a. trans. To smother, suffocate. Obs.
| 1481 Caxton Reynard xxxiv. (Arb.) 98 Hit stanke that I was almost smoldred therof. 1489 ― Faytes of A. i. xxiv. 77 The hete of the sonne was so brennynge hoot that almost hyt smoldred the rommanyns. 1529 Rastell Pastyme (1811) 292 The most commyn opinyon was, that they were smolderyd betwene two fetherbeddes. 1563 Golding Cæsar (1565) 157 b, Other some..doe smoolder the men wythin them wyth the flame. 1586 Warner Alb. Eng. ii. vii. (1589) 24 Some stumbling on the bodies dead are smoldred so and die. |
† b. To smother, in various fig. uses. Obs.
| 1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. li. 12 Although the giftes of the Holy Ghoste were smoldered in him. 1575 Gammer Gurton v. ii, How-euer the thing he clockes or smolders. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 68 Which indignitie..as then..smouldered up in respect of the common cause,..afterwards brake out againe. |
2. a. intr. To burn and smoke without flame. Also transf. (quot. 1851).
| 1529 More Suppl. Souls ii. Wks. 321/2 The tone is a light flame sone ended, the tother smowdreth much lenger. 1530 Palsgr. 723/1, I smolder, as wete wood doth. Ibid., This woode burneth nat clere, it dothe but smolder. |
| 1851 Tennyson E. Morris 147 The light cloud smoulders on the summer crag. 1857 Miller Elem. Chem., Orig. ix. 574 Baryta salt..when burned in open air smoulders like tinder till the naphthalin is consumed. 1859 W. Collins Q. of Hearts (1875) 55 The floor was smouldering in several places. |
b. In fig. contexts.
| 1575 Gascoigne Flowers Wks. 88 Nor yet [can] my fancie make such flame, that I may smoulder in the same. |
| 1814 Scott Ld. of Isles ii. xxvi, He waked a spark, that, long suppress'd, Had smoulder'd in Lord Ronald's breast. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xviii. IV. 188 The civil war.., after it had ceased to flame, had continued during some time to smoulder. |
c. fig. To exist or continue in a suppressed state.
| 1810 Scott Lady of L. ii. xv, Still..Smoulders in Roderick's breast the feud. 1842 Manning Serm. (1848) I. 3 For wise ends, God suffers this rebellion to smoulder in His Kingdom. 1888 Fagge Princ. Med. I. 185 Intestinal lesions may smoulder on without giving rise to any symptoms. |
d. To show suppressed anger, hatred, resentment, etc.
| 1934 in Webster. 1957 L. Durrell Justine i. 69 She seemed to smoulder like a tar-barrel on the point of explosion. 1983 ‘J. Gash’ Sleepers of Erin iv. 42 Kurak smouldered his way to the Rolls, vibing pure hate in my direction. |
† 3. To be feeble or languid. Obs.—1
| 1578 Banister Hist. Man iv. 55 It [the midriff] beyng wounded the hart smoldreth, like the lampe that dyeth for lacke of oyle. |
Hence ˈsmouldered ppl. a.
| 1796 Coleridge Destiny of Nations 258 Aside the beacon, up whose smouldered stones The..ivy-trails crept thinly. |