smoke

smoke visible gaseous product of incomplete combustion. Smoke varies with its source, but it usually comprises hot gas and suspended particles of carbon and tarry substances, or soot. To reduce the amount of smoke entering the atmosphere, air pollution laws generally require that power plants, factories, and other large combustion facilities burn anthracite (hard) coal, natural gas, or low-sulfur fuel oil rather than bituminous (soft) coal or high-sulfur fuel oil, and that smokestacks be equipped with scrubbers or other devices. Proper firing techniques and equipment can eliminate or greatly reduce the smoke produced by any fuel. Wood gives little smoke if burned when dry and if the fire is given a good supply of air. Where it is necessary to use soft coal because of its lower cost or because other fuel is not available, the grate and flue must be built to insure maximum combustion, the coal supply must be carefully regulated, and adequate air must be supplied. There are various ways of reducing the amount of smoke escaping into the air. Some methods utilize electricity or sound waves for precipitation of the suspended particles, others employ chemicals; the method using an electric current at high potential is perhaps best known. Smoke precipitates may yield valuable byproducts; for example, fly ash can be used as a construction material. Among the evils of smoke are interference with sunlight, causing the most healthful rays of the sun to be filtered out and necessitating the use of artificial light; disfigurement of buildings, leaving deposits that are costly to remove and causing corrosion of stone and metalwork; destruction of plant life by shutting out sunlight and by clogging the stomata of leaves with oily deposits; and injury to the respiratory systems of humans and livestock. Tobacco smoke, in particular, is known to be related to cancer of the lungs and other organs (see smoking ). In addition to such damages, smoke also represents a waste of energy, as imperfect combustion dissipates potential heat into the atmosphere. Smoke particles and other air pollutants are often trapped in the atmosphere by a combination of environmental circumstances (see temperature inversion ), forming smog . Paris early passed stringent laws in an effort to preserve architectural and sculptural monuments, and most U.S. cities had smoke-nuisance laws before air pollution regulations were put into effect. Smoke-nuisance laws are difficult to enforce and often are not applicable to existing residential heating units, although these are often important contributors to pollution. In order to comply with federal air pollution standards many cities have now adopted building codes that require minimally polluting heating units in new buildings and that forbid the use of incinerators.

smoke no smoke without fire proverbial saying, late Middle English, meaning that rumour is generally founded on fact. (A fuller version is recorded in late 13th-century French, to the effect that ‘no fire is without smoke, nor smoke without fire.’
smoke and mirrors (originally, with reference to the illusion created by conjuring tricks) are deception, dissimulation, bluff; especially, an obscuring or embellishment of the truth with misleading or irrelevant information.
smoke-filled room regarded as the characteristic venue of those in control of a party meeting to arrange a political decision, from a news report, filed 12 June 1920 of how Warren Harding of Ohio was chosen as the Republican presidential candidate.
watch someone's smoke observe another person's activity. The fanciful implication is that the activity will be so fast and furious that it will cause smoke, which will be the only thing visible.

See also Big Smoke at big, smoking.

smoke / smōk/ • n. a visible suspension of carbon or other particles in air, typically one emitted from a burning substance: bonfire smoke. ∎  an act of smoking tobacco: I'm dying for a smoke. ∎ inf. a cigarette or cigar. • v. 1. [intr.] emit smoke or visible vapor: heat the oil until it just smokes | [as adj.] (smoking) they huddled around his smoking fire in the winter damp. ∎  inhale and exhale the smoke of tobacco or a drug: Janine was sitting at the kitchen table smoking| [as n.] (smoking) the effect of smoking on health | [tr.] he smoked forty cigarettes a day. 2. [tr.] [often as adj.] (smoked) cure or preserve (meat or fish) by exposure to smoke: smoked salmon. ∎  treat (glass) so as to darken it: the smoked glass of his lenses. ∎  fumigate, cleanse, or purify by exposure to smoke. ∎  subdue (insects, esp. bees) by exposing them to smoke. ∎  (smoke someone/something out) drive someone or something out of a place by using smoke: we will fire the roof and smoke him out. ∎  (smoke someone out) fig. force someone to make something known: as the press smokes him out on other human rights issues, he will be revealed as a social conservative. 3. [intr.] be aggressive or energetic: [as adj.] (smoking) the band responds with a smoking first set. ∎  [tr.] inf. kill (someone) by shooting. ∎  defeat overwhelmingly in a fight or contest. 4. [tr.] archaic make fun of (someone): we baited her and smoked her. PHRASES: blow smoke try to mislead or threaten someone by giving false or exaggerated information: the coach has been blowing smoke for the past three years about our program. go up in smoke inf. be destroyed by fire. ∎ fig. (of a plan) come to nothing: more than one dream is about to go up in smoke. smoke and mirrors the obscuring or embellishing of the truth of a situation with misleading or irrelevant information: the budget process is an exercise in smoke and mirrors. smoke like a chimney smoke tobacco incessantly.DERIVATIVES: smok·a·ble (also smoke·a·ble) adj.