smoko
A cigarette / coffee break at work, especially on a job site.
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#NowPlaying 🕖 7:16 pm 🎵 Smoko 🧑🎤 The Chats 💿 Get This In Ya 🎧 Apple Music / YouTube Music 📝 Lyrics
I want the cigarette. Give smoko
02. [↑](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoko#cite_ref-2)Mevissen, Andrew (4 June 2006). ["Weird place names"](http://www.theage.com.au/news/take-five/weird-place-names/2006/06/02/1148956534047.html). _[The Age](https:/…
It then cuts to Eamon on a beach with binoculars, seeing what appears to be a woman having trouble in the ocean, but then checks his (non-existent) watch and realizes it's 'smoko'.
3. [↑](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoko,_Victoria#cite_ref-ABS2016_3-0)[Australian Bureau of Statistics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Bureau_of_Statistics "Australian Bureau of Statistics") (27 June 201…
Definitions
A cigarette / coffee break at work, especially on a job site. By extension, any short break.
"Smoko's at 10."
Comments
A cigarette break from work or military duty; a brief cessation of work to have a smoke, or (more generally) to take a small rest, snack etc.
Smoko is Australian and New Zealand slang for a short work break, originally a cigarette break. Not concerning, just regional vocabulary. If your kid uses it constantly, ask them where they first heard it, not to police their speech but to understand which online community they are in. Most slang of this kind moves through TikTok and group chats, so seeing it in your child's vocabulary just means they are plugged into normal teen internet culture.
Smoko is Australian and New Zealand English informal noun meaning a short work break (originally for smoking). Now used regardless of whether the worker smokes. Use in Australian and New Zealand contexts. Formal equivalents: "short break," "coffee break." Common non-native mistake: assuming literal smoking. Modern smokos often involve tea, coffee, or food rather than cigarettes. Read or listen to the word in context several times before trying it yourself; the right register is harder to learn than the dictionary meaning.
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Show 1 more dictionary-style sense (imported)
A tea break or coffee break with cakes, snacks, etc.
“It then cuts to Eamon on a beach with binoculars, seeing what appears to be a woman having trouble in the ocean, but then checks his (non-existent) watch and realizes it's 'smoko'.”
“02. [↑](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoko#cite_ref-2)Mevissen, Andrew (4 June 2006). ["Weird place names"](http://www.theage.com.au/news/take-five/weird-place-names/2006/06/02/1148956534047.html). _[The Age](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age "The Age")_.”
“It then cuts to Eamon on a beach with binoculars, seeing what appears to be a woman having trouble in the ocean, but then checks his (non-existent) watch and realizes it's 'smoko'.”
“3. [↑](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoko,_Victoria#cite_ref-ABS2016_3-0)[Australian Bureau of Statistics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Bureau_of_Statistics "Australian Bureau of Statistics") (27 June 2017). ["Smoko"](https://www.abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/quickstats/2016/SSC22286). _2016 Census QuickStats_.”
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