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Synonyms

smoke out

British  

verb

  1. to subject to smoke in order to drive out of hiding

  2. to bring into the open; expose to the public

    they smoked out the plot
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
smoke out Idioms  

  1. Expose, reveal, bring to public view, as in Reporters thrive on smoking out a scandal. This expression alludes to driving a person or animal out of a hiding place by filling it with smoke. [Late 1500s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Its access to Fannie and Freddie’s mortgage databases is supposed to be used to keep the housing finance system stable and fair, not to smoke out individual cases of mortgage fraud.

From Slate • Aug. 30, 2025

Police and firefighters fenced off the area and a beekeeper was called in to smoke out the bees - a safe way to calm the insects.

From BBC • Jul. 8, 2025

Near the coast, the Palisades fire chewed through the Santa Monica Mountains and reduced dream houses with Pacific views to their foundations, sending a jetstream of smoke out to the ocean.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 16, 2025

Otis blew smoke out of his nose, admiring his own muscular arms.

From Salon • Mar. 13, 2024

Tad reached for the water bottle next to Kaitlin as Rashid added, “You guys should close the door behind us to keep the smoke out until we come back.”

From "Time Bomb" by Joelle Charbonneau

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.