smother noun an overcoat UK,1934 Allied to the practical sense of the coat worn over a pickpocket’s arm to mask criminal activity.
[S]he insisted on our leaving behind three of the finest pen-and-ink [mink] smothers I ever set eyes on. — Charles Raven, UnderworldNights, p. 21, 1956
[He] whips out a pint of scotch where the torch came from in his smother[.] — Derek Raymond (Robin Cook), TheCrustonitsUppers, p. 53, 1962