Smite

The verb 'to smite' is these days only used in contexts where the Bible and other texts, largely Early Modern English, are tolerably well known. Its basic meaning is 'to hit', with an implication of 'hard', 'in such a way as to cause injury'. It is used in the Authorised Version often of actions undertaken by God, as when he said to Moses, "In this thou shalt know that I am the LORD: behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand..." (this was the first of the Ten Plagues of Egypt); or his agents on earth: David, for example, threw a stone from his sling and "smote the Philistine [the giant Goliath] in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth [i.e. dead]" (1 Sam., 17, 49). In other words, it was a mighty blow. The verb is not much used in these less mighty days, though it is sometimes applied in a less than serious way to such mighty figures as blacksmiths and sportsmen such as boxers or cricketers. You are advised not to use it at all, except when quoting texts such as the Bible.

The past participle form smitten is sometimes used absolutely, or with a 'by' phrase (e.g., 'by her beauty'), to mean 'helplessly in love': "She smiled: he was smitten." Avoid this usage too: it is a cliché of romantic fiction. One may also be smitten by disease, or 'suddenly struck down [by an infection, or stroke, or infarction']

'To smite' is an irregular verb. Its forms are given here:

Base form	past tense	-ed participle	Remarks
smite	smote	smitten	archaic except when metaphorical in past participle, e.g. 'smitten with her charms'.

This is one of the "the 250 or so irregular verbs" listed in Quirk 1985. The list "contains most of the irregular verbs in present-day English ... but is not meant to be exhaustive, particularly with regard to derivative verbs." AWE has copied most of the entries in that list. The verb 'to smite' belongs to Quirk's Class 4 C a.