The Clue
Plant affliction (4 letter answer)
The Answer
SMUT
Tags
Notes
The answer SMUT is seen frequently, appearing about once every 160 puzzles.
Related Clues
Filth
Obscenity
Porn
Pornography
Scuzz
Blue books
Blue books?
Blue material
Blue prints?
Censor's concern
Censor's target
Certain fungus
Dirty literature
Dirty reading
Dirty stuff
Indecent literature
Moralist's target
Obscene material
Obscene stuff
Plant disease
Prurient matter
Sanitization target
Soot or porn
Sooty matter
It's blue
It's not clean
Peep shows and the like
X-rated stuff
Federal Communications Commission target
Great literature it's not
Contents of some plain brown wrappers
Tom Lehrer's anti-censorship song
Definition
SMUT as a noun:
1. (carbon black, lampblack, soot, smut, crock) = a black colloidal substance consisting wholly or principally of amorphous carbon and used to make pigments and ink
2. destructive diseases of plants (especially cereal grasses) caused by fungi that produce black powdery masses of spores
3. (smut, smut fungus) = any fungus of the order Ustilaginales
4. (obscenity, smut, vulgarism, filth, dirty word) = an offensive or indecent word or phrase
5. (pornography, porno, porn, erotica, smut) = creative activity (writing or pictures or films etc.) of no literary or artistic value other than to stimulate sexual desire
SMUT as a verb:
1. make obscene; "This line in the play smuts the entire act"
2. stain with a dirty substance, such as soot
3. become affected with smut; "the corn smutted and could not be eaten"
4. affect with smut or mildew, as of a crop such as corn