smoke

noun (GREY GAS)

/sməʊk/

/smoʊk/

Definition

B1 [U] the grey, black, or white mixture of gas and very small pieces of carbon that is produced when something burns: cigarette smoke a tiny smoke-filled pub The fire produced a pall (= large mass) of smoke visible 20 miles away. Plumes of smoke billowed from the chimney. She leaned back thoughtfully and blew a puff of (= a small amount of) smoke into the air.Products of fire go up in smoke › to be destroyed by burning: Because of the fire, hundreds of houses went up in smoke.Burning, burnt and on fire › Something that goes up in smoke fails to produce the result that was wanted: When the business went bankrupt, 20 years of hard work went up in smoke.Failing and doing badly

(Definition of smoke noun (GREY GAS) from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

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