smut

noun

• 1a small flake of soot or other dirt or a mark left by one:all those black smuts from the engine

• 2 [mass noun] a fungal disease of cereals in which parts of the ear change to black powder: a few bad crop years with smut and drought and frost [count noun]:fungal infections such as the smuts

  • The fungi belong to Ustilago and other genera, order Ustilaginales, class Teliomycetes

• 3 [mass noun] obscene or lascivious talk, writing, or pictures:porn, in his view, is far from being harmless smut

verb (smuts, smutting, smutted)

• 1mark with flakes or soot or other dirt:the smutted sky

• 2infect (a plant) with smut:smutted wheat