smarten

From smart +‎ -en.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsmɑːt(ə)n/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: smart‧en

smarten (third-person singular simple present smartens, present participle smartening, simple past and past participle smartened)

1. (transitive) To make smarter in appearance; to refurbish or spruce up.
   • 1997 June 26, J. K. Rowling [pseudonym; Joanne Rowling], Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Harry Potter; 1), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

     The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting.

2. (transitive) To increase the speed of (one's travel on foot, etc.).
   • 2001, Vernon Robinson, If I Should Die Before I Wake, page 264:

     I braced myself and smartened my pace, shouldering my way through the crowd.

3. (transitive) To augment with computer technology.

   Synonym: computerize

   • 2008, Roger Neeson Anderson, Albert Boulanger, John A. Johnson, Computer-aided Lean Management for the Energy Industry, page 335:

     How do we achieve this smartening of the grid? The CALM approach in the future will be to use reinforcement learning (RL) controllers as a basis for optimizing the synergy between operators and automation.

• smarten up

• sarment, starmen, Manters, artsmen, Arments, Termans, Materns, martens, raments

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑrtən

From Middle Dutch smarten, smerten, from Old Dutch *smertan, from Proto-West Germanic *smertan, from Proto-Germanic *smertaną.

smarten

1. (transitive, archaic, poetic) to grieve, inflict suffering

   Zijn vertrek smartte mij zeer. ― His departure grieved me greatly.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

smarten

1. plural of smart

smarten

1. alternative form of smerten