/smut/ , n. , v. , smutted, smutting .
n.
1. a particle of soot; sooty matter.
2. a black or dirty mark; smudge.
3. indecent language or publications; obscenity.
4. Plant Pathol.
a. a disease of plants, esp. cereal grasses, characterized by the conversion of affected parts into black, powdery masses of spores, caused by fungi of the order Ustilaginales.
b. a fungus causing this disease.
v.t.
5. to soil or smudge.
v.i.
6. to become affected with smut, as a plant.
[ 1580-90; akin to earlier smit (OE smitte ), by assoc. with SMUDGE, SMUTCH ]