A tea break or coffee break with cakes, snacks, etc.
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.
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An informal pause or break used as an excuse to step away from a social situation, conversation, or obligation — whether or not a cigarette is actually involved. Borrowed from the universal social currency of the smoke break as an escape hatch.
(UK, Irish, slang) A brief cessation of work, activity etc. in order to have a cigarette.
(obsolete) A conversation undertaken while smoking tobacco, or while making smoke with a fire.
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:/…
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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A cigarette / coffee break at work, especially on a job site. By extension, any short break.
"Smoko's at 10."
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A tea break or coffee break with cakes, snacks, etc.
“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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