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smokestack

American  
[smohk-stak] / ˈsmoʊkˌstæk /

noun

  1. Also called stack.  a pipe for the escape of the smoke or gases of combustion, as on a steamboat, locomotive, or building.

adjective

  1. pertaining to, engaged in, or dependent on a basic heavy industry, as steel or automaking.

    smokestack companies.
smokestack British  
/ ˈsməʊkˌstæk /

noun

  1. Sometimes shortened to: stack.  a tall chimney that conveys smoke into the air

"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

Etymology

Origin of smokestack

First recorded in 1855–60; smoke + stack

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.

The helicopter continued on to Kendra, where the smokestacks of a paper mill normally puffed gray clouds into the sky, twenty-four hours a day.

From Literature

In nearly 130 years, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has evolved from its origins as a list of “smokestack” raw-materials and industrial businesses to its modern-day inclusion of cloud computing and semiconductor giants.

From The Wall Street Journal

I sit for several minutes, frustration rising into my smokestack of a brain.

From Literature

Farther off, whales blew jets of water from their blowholes like smoke from the smokestack of a Bloomer steam locomotive.

From Literature

As a child, he had a view of Fletcher Oil Co.’s towering smokestacks from his frontyard.

From Los Angeles Times

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.