talk smack
Appearance
See also: smack talk
English
[edit]Verb
[edit]talk smack (third-person singular simple present talks smack, present participle talking smack, simple past and past participle talked smack)
- (US) To talk trash; to make insulting comments about someone, especially in an aggressive or confrontational manner.
- 1988, Mary G. Harris, Cholas: Latino Girls and Gangs, page 110:
- Just as long as they don't come around talking smack to us. But if they ain't in no gang and they live in our area, it's up to them if they join or not.
- 1992, Ricardo Cortez Cruz, Straight Outta Compton: A Dive Into Living Large, a Work Where Characters ..., page 10:
- He kept talking smack, his story getting more and more depressing with each lie.
- 1996, Becky W. Thompson, Sangeeta Tyagi, Names We Call Home: Autobiography on Racial Identity, page 32:
- Jewish kids learned to distinguish between talking "shit," talking "jive," and talking "smack".
- 1996, Christopher A. Darden, Jess Walter, In Contempt, page 49:
- A half-mile away, we slowed down and were slapping hands and talking smack, so impressed with ourselves.
- 2001, Mark Rackers, Nesting, page 185:
- And I was talking smack, cracking jokes, playing with Mateo the host. He liked it.
- 2003, John Vorhaus, Killer Poker Online: Crushing the Internet Game, page 180:
- because the rest of the table gets to see him talking smack, and he thus establishes himself as a bully without ever having played a hand.
- 2007, Tina Brooks McKinney, Lawd, Mo' Drama, page 244:
- He was talking smack about getting back together with his family, and everyone believed he was sincere; especially Kayla.
- 2007, Daniel J. Solove, The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet, page 121:
- On another blog, one commentator wrote: "To me it is like rumors and people talking smack; the more you yell about it the more truthful it seems to others.
- 2008, Sherman Alexie, Indian Killer, pages 187–188:
- "One of them, the white mask, the leader, was talking smack at me." / "Talking smack?" / "You know, talking smack, talking trash, giving me shit about being Indian."
- 2008, Chuck Liddell, Chad Millman, Iceman: My Fighting Life, page 39:
- Eric was great at talking smack. He'd see a guy walking around who was bigger than all of us and tell me, "That guy can totally kick your ass," just to start up with me.
References
[edit]- “to talk smack” under “talk, v.”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
- “smack”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present