smart a OED ~ a 9 for sense 1. EDD 12, DAE 1 NE (1788-) for sense 2. Cp CLEVER.
1 Lively, alert, active. vigorous.
1792 PULLING MS Aug But, added Peckford, there are some smart fellows gone around to Matthew Ward's in New Bay now for the Indians. [1833] 1927 DOYLE (ed) 15 "Come All Ye Jolly Ice-Hunters": We had twenty-eight as smart a lads as ever crossed the main. [1856] 1977 WHITELEY 32 He was a smart little boy. 1873 CARROLL 25 An old seal when on level ice will outstrip a smart fellow in a distance of 60 vards, provided the seal is ten or twelve feet ahead of him. [1896] SWANSBOROUGH 14 "December": December comes when days are short, / To do much work we must be smart. 1964 BLONDAHL (ed) 77 "Sealing Cruise of the Lone Flier": Peter Trooke, a smart young man, was working in the hold, / When a cask of oil fell through the hatch and gave him a severe blow. / Edmond Hines was a smart young man, and everything went well, / Until we donkeyed him five times and he got mad as hell. T 187-65 The only thing about Eskimos—they couldn't stand no sickness. They was alright, robust, smart as anything while they was well, but the least bit o' sickness take 'old to un, he was gone.
2 In good health.
1937 DEVINE 46 ~ In good health; much the same as clever in this sense. P 245-56 'How's your mother, Joe?' 'She's smart, thank you.' T 172-65 [He's] not as smart as me, 'cause he got an 'eart condition. an' I haven't.
