The usual signification of this word is given by Webster, as follows:  “To fall or sink suddenly into water or mud, when walking on a hard surface, as on ice or frozen ground, not strong enough to bear the person.”  To which he adds:  “This legitimate word is in common and respectable use in New England, and its signification is so appropriate, that no other word will supply its place.”

From this meaning, the transfer is, by analogy, very easy and natural, and the application very correct, to a poor recitation.

SMALL-COLLEGE.  The name by which an inferior college in the English universities is known.

A “Small-College” man was Senior Wrangler.—­Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng.  Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 61.

SMALL-COLLEGER.  A member of a Small-College.

The two Latin prizes and the English poem [were carried off] by a Small-Colleger.—­Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng.  Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 113.

The idea of a Small-Colleger beating all Trinity was deemed preposterous.—­Ibid., p. 127.

SMALLS, or SMALL-GO.  At the University of Oxford, an examination in the second year.  See LITTLE-GO; PREVIOUS EXAMINATION.

At the Smalls, as the previous Examination is here called, each examiner sends in his Greek and Latin book.—­Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng.  Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 139.

It follows that the Smalls is a more formidable examination than the Little-Go.—­Ibid., p. 139.

SMASH.  At the Wesleyan University, a total failure in reciting is called a smash.

SMILE.  A small quantity of any spirituous liquor, or enough to give one a pleasant feeling.

  Hast ta’en a “smile” at Brigham’s.
    Poem before the Iadma, 1850, p. 7.

SMOKE.  In some colleges, one of the means made use of by the Sophomores to trouble the Freshmen is to blow smoke into their rooms until they are compelled to leave, or, in other words, until they are smoked out.  When assafoetida is mingled with the tobacco, the sensation which ensues, as the foul effluvium is gently wafted through the keyhole, is anything but pleasing to the olfactory nerves.

  Or when, in conclave met, the unpitying wights
  Smoke the young trembler into “College rights”: 
  O spare my tender youth! he, suppliant, cries,
  In vain, in vain; redoubled clouds arise,
  While the big tears adown his visage roll,
  Caused by the smoke, and sorrow of his soul.
    College Life, by J.C.  Richmond, p. 4.

They would lock me in if I left my key outside, smoke me out, duck me, &c.—­Sketches of Williams College, p. 74.

I would not have you sacrifice all these advantages for the sake of smoking future Freshmen.—­Burial of Euclid, 1850, p. 10.