Found 1 items, similar to To end in smoke.
English → English (gcide) Definition: To end in smoke Smoke \Smoke\ (sm[=o]k), n. [AS. smoca, fr. sme['o]can to smoke; akin to LG. & D. smook smoke, Dan. sm["o]g, G. schmauch, and perh. to Gr. ??? to burn in a smoldering fire; cf. Lith. smaugti to choke.] 1. The visible exhalation, vapor, or substance that escapes, or expelled, from a burning body, especially from burning vegetable matter, as wood, coal, peat, or the like. [1913 Webster] Note: The gases of hydrocarbons, raised to a red heat or thereabouts, without a mixture of air enough to produce combustion, disengage their carbon in a fine powder, forming smoke. The disengaged carbon when deposited on solid bodies is soot. [1913 Webster] 2. That which resembles smoke; a vapor; a mist. [1913 Webster] 3. Anything unsubstantial, as idle talk. --Shak. [1913 Webster] 4. The act of smoking, esp. of smoking tobacco; as, to have a smoke. [Colloq.] [1913 Webster] Note: Smoke is sometimes joined with other word. forming self-explaining compounds; as, smoke-consuming, smoke-dried, smoke-stained, etc. [1913 Webster] Smoke arch, the smoke box of a locomotive. Smoke ball (Mil.), a ball or case containing a composition which, when it burns, sends forth thick smoke. Smoke black, lampblack. [Obs.] Smoke board, a board suspended before a fireplace to prevent the smoke from coming out into the room. Smoke box, a chamber in a boiler, where the smoke, etc., from the furnace is collected before going out at the chimney. Smoke sail (Naut.), a small sail in the lee of the galley stovepipe, to prevent the smoke from annoying people on deck. Smoke tree (Bot.), a shrub (Rhus Cotinus) in which the flowers are mostly abortive and the panicles transformed into tangles of plumose pedicels looking like wreaths of smoke. To end in smoke, to burned; hence, to be destroyed or ruined; figuratively, to come to nothing. [1913 Webster] Syn: Fume; reek; vapor. [1913 Webster]