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smoke and mirrors

 - 4 dictionary results

smoke and mirrors

–noun
(used with a singular or plural verb) something that distorts or blurs facts, figures, etc., like a magic or conjuring trick; artful deception.

Origin:
1980–85
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To smoke and mirrors
smoke   (smōk)   
n.  
  1. The vaporous system made up of small particles of carbonaceous matter in the air, resulting mainly from the burning of organic material, such as wood or coal.

  2. A suspension of fine solid or liquid particles in a gaseous medium.

  3. A cloud of fine particles.

  4. Something insubstantial, unreal, or transitory.

    1. The act of smoking a form of tobacco: went out for a smoke.

    2. The duration of this act.

  5. Informal Tobacco in a form that can be smoked, especially a cigarette: money to buy smokes.

  6. A substance used in warfare to produce a smoke screen.

  7. Something used to conceal or obscure.

  8. A pale to grayish blue to bluish or dark gray.

v.   smoked, smok·ing, smokes

v.   intr.
    1. To draw in and exhale smoke from a cigarette, cigar, or pipe: It's forbidden to smoke here.

    2. To engage in smoking regularly or habitually: He smoked for years before stopping.

    3. To go or proceed at high speed.

    4. To play or perform energetically: The band was really smoking in the second set.

  1. To emit smoke or a smokelike substance: chimneys smoking in the cold air.

  2. To emit smoke excessively: The station wagon smoked even after the tune-up.

  3. Slang

    1. To go or proceed at high speed.

    2. To play or perform energetically: The band was really smoking in the second set.

v.   tr.
    1. To draw in and exhale the smoke of (tobacco, for example): I've never smoked a panatela.

    2. To do so regularly or habitually: I used to smoke filtered cigarettes.

    3. To fumigate (a house, for example).

    4. To expose (animals, especially insects) to smoke in order to immobilize or drive away.

  1. To preserve (meat or fish) by exposure to the aromatic smoke of burning hardwood, usually after pickling in salt or brine.

    1. To fumigate (a house, for example).

    2. To expose (animals, especially insects) to smoke in order to immobilize or drive away.

  2. To expose (glass) to smoke in order to darken or change its color.

  3. Slang To kill; murder.

Phrasal Verb(s):
smoke out
  1. To force out of a place of hiding or concealment by or as if by the use of smoke.

  2. To detect and bring to public view; expose or reveal: smoke out a scandal.


Idiom(s):
smoke and mirrorsSomething that deceives or distorts the truth: Your explanation is nothing but smoke and mirrors.

[Middle English, from Old English smoca.]
smok'a·ble, smoke'a·ble adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary
smoke and mirrors

  1. n.
    a strategy of deception and cover up. : Her entire report was nothing but smoke and mirrors. Who could believe any of it?
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Computing Dictionary

smoke and mirrors
Marketing deceptions. The term is mainstream in this general sense. Among hackers it's strongly associated with bogus demos and crocked benchmarks (see also MIPS, machoflops). "They claim their new box cranks 50 MIPS for under $5000, but didn't specify the instruction mix - sounds like smoke and mirrors to me." The phrase has been said to derive from carnie slang for magic acts and "freak show" displays that depend on "trompe l"oeil' effects, but also calls to mind the fierce Aztec god Tezcatlipoca (lit. "Smoking Mirror") for whom the hearts of huge numbers of human sacrificial victims were regularly cut out. Upon hearing about a rigged demo or yet another round of fantasy-based marketing promises, hackers often feel analogously disheartened.

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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