smolder
Americanverb (used without object)
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to burn without flame; undergo slow or suppressed combustion.
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to exist or continue in a suppressed state or without outward demonstration.
Hatred smoldered beneath a polite surface.
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to display repressed feelings, as of indignation, anger, or the like.
to smolder with rage.
noun
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dense smoke resulting from slow or suppressed combustion.
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a smoldering fire.
verb
Other Word Forms
- unsmoldering adjective
Etymology
Origin of smolder
1275–1325; (noun) Middle English smolder smoky vapor, dissimilated variant of smorther smother; (v.) Middle English (as present participle smolderende ), derivative of the noun
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.
"Peatlands and organic soils can smolder for weeks to years, releasing enormous amounts of ancient carbon."
From Science Daily • Mar. 4, 2026
As a result, they may overlook slower, less visible fires that smolder deep within peat and organic soils.
From Science Daily • Mar. 4, 2026
Passions still smolder below the surface, but there is not enough oxygen to let them flame into life.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 7, 2026
But investigators determined that during the Lachman fire, a firebrand became seated within the dense vegetation, continuing to smolder and burn within the roots underground.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 8, 2025
And though he, too, doesn’t speak, his dark eyes smolder, telling me something I don’t quite understand.
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
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.
