variants
or smouldered
1
as in snarled
to be excited or emotionally stirred up with anger
She smoldered when first learning of her son's misbehavior at school, but had calmed down by the time he arrived home.
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2
as in blazed
to be on fire usually with smoke but few flames
They look forward to those long summer nights telling stories beside a smoldering campfire.
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Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
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Recent Examples of smoldered
Prosecutors say the blaze allegedly started by Rinderknecht smoldered underground for days before exploding into the wildfire that killed 12 people, destroyed thousands of structures across Los Angeles County, and burned more than 23,000 acres.
—
Kaelan Deese,
The Washington Examiner,
26 June 2026
Prosecutors said the Lachman fire smoldered underground for a week before exploding into the deadly Palisades fire.
—
Brittny Mejia,
Los Angeles Times,
25 June 2026
In 2024, a Lineage facility in Washington state caught fire and smoldered for two months, Northwest Public Broadcasting reported.
—
Holly Yan,
CNN Money,
22 June 2026
More specifically, the ’90s chemistry queen Rene Russo, who has smoldered onscreen with everyone from Clint Eastwood and Mel Gibson to Pierce Brosnan and John Travolta.
—
Jesse Hassenger,
Entertainment Weekly,
18 June 2026
Smith beamed a luminous smile as Brosnan smoldered for the camera on the red carpet in 1995.
—
John Russell,
PEOPLE,
16 May 2026
Crews work to uncover and cool unused coal which has smoldered for 20 years near Florence, Colorado.
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Logan Smith,
CBS News,
11 Apr. 2026
Her decision to stop the publication of a 60 Minutes piece about a Salvadoran prison that had been cleared by others at the network sparked an internal fire that smoldered for weeks until the story eventually aired.
—
Max Tani,
semafor.com,
30 Mar. 2026
For about a week, the fire smoldered at low intensity, doing its work on a patch of roughly 120 acres.
—
New York Times,
16 Mar. 2026
Kaelan Deese,
The Washington Examiner,
26 June 2026
Prosecutors said the Lachman fire smoldered underground for a week before exploding into the deadly Palisades fire.
—
Brittny Mejia,
Los Angeles Times,
25 June 2026
In 2024, a Lineage facility in Washington state caught fire and smoldered for two months, Northwest Public Broadcasting reported.
—
Holly Yan,
CNN Money,
22 June 2026
More specifically, the ’90s chemistry queen Rene Russo, who has smoldered onscreen with everyone from Clint Eastwood and Mel Gibson to Pierce Brosnan and John Travolta.
—
Jesse Hassenger,
Entertainment Weekly,
18 June 2026
Smith beamed a luminous smile as Brosnan smoldered for the camera on the red carpet in 1995.
—
John Russell,
PEOPLE,
16 May 2026
Crews work to uncover and cool unused coal which has smoldered for 20 years near Florence, Colorado.
—
Logan Smith,
CBS News,
11 Apr. 2026
Her decision to stop the publication of a 60 Minutes piece about a Salvadoran prison that had been cleared by others at the network sparked an internal fire that smoldered for weeks until the story eventually aired.
—
Max Tani,
semafor.com,
30 Mar. 2026
For about a week, the fire smoldered at low intensity, doing its work on a patch of roughly 120 acres.
—
New York Times,
16 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for smoldered
Verb
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Chopper 2 The crash snarled traffic as the northbound lanes of the turnpike's inner roadway north of Interchange 12 were shut down all morning.
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Traffic was snarled on Interstate 70 and other key arteries because of some combination of vague signage on parking passes or apps, accidents earlier in the afternoon, the lack of dedicated lanes for the bus system — why oh why couldn’t that be achieved in the master plan?
Verb
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An interstellar comet that blazed past the sun and swung by Earth last year could be nearly three times older than our solar system and is unlike anything ever before seen in our cosmic backyard, astronomers said Monday.
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Some celebrity children went to their parents' own Ivy alma maters — like Conan O'Brien's son, who went to Harvard University — while others blazed their own academic paths to institutions like Brown, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale.
Verb
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Though both agree that in real life, Berlant would fit in more easily than Early, who, during a break from the shoot, angered a trio of local Hamptonites merely by using the bathroom at a Citarella.
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Though net migration is down, many are angered by migrants entering the country illegally — specifically the sight of people, often escaping war zones such as Afghanistan and Sudan, arriving on British shores in inflatable boats after making the dangerous journey across the English Channel.
Verb
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The Cottonwood Fire had burned nearly 72,000 acres and is at 0% containment.
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Idling trucks, sandbag piles and large metal trailers stationed around a massive cold storage facility that burned for days in Boyle Heights signaled that the work to clean up millions of pounds of spoiled food and burned debris had begun Friday morning.
Verb
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Farage snapped when questioned about the gift on a LBC radio show this week.
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Miami had its four-game win streak snapped despite an impressive outing by Tyler Phillips (1-3), who gave up two runs on six hits with no walks and one strikeout through 7 1/3 innings.
Verb
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After exposing the bones to a high-energy blue light, the team used an optical filter to see which of them glowed red.
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The sandstone bowl of a stadium built in 1924 glowed gold.
Verb
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The French capital is in the midst of a heat wave — the day of the show was the city’s hottest ever June day, until Wednesday eclipsed it — and the model’s toes steamed inside the oblong footwear.
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But don’t miss the crispy duck and walnut, and matsutake steamed chicken at the equally satisfying but more casual Yunnan specialty restaurant, Horizon.
Verb
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SportsCenter flickered on several televisions.
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In the Florida Keys, lights flickered and boats rocked a bit more than usual.
Cite this Entry
“Smoldered.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/smoldered. Accessed 29 Jun. 2026.
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