SMELL

smell, smelling

(noun) the act of perceiving the odor of something

smell, sense of smell, olfaction, olfactory modality

(noun) the faculty that enables us to distinguish scents

smell, odor, odour, olfactory sensation, olfactory perception

(noun) the sensation that results when olfactory receptors in the nose are stimulated by particular chemicals in gaseous form; “she loved the smell of roses”

spirit, tone, feel, feeling, flavor, flavour, look, smell

(noun) the general atmosphere of a place or situation and the effect that it has on people; “the feel of the city excited him”; “a clergyman improved the tone of the meeting”; “it had the smell of treason”

smell, smell out, sense

(verb) become aware of not through the senses but instinctively; “I sense his hostility”; “I smell trouble”; “smell out corruption”

smell

(verb) emit an odor; “The soup smells good”

smell

(verb) smell bad; “He rarely washes, and he smells”

smell

(verb) inhale the odor of; perceive by the olfactory sense

Source: WordNet® 3.1

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Etymology

Noun

smell (countable and uncountable, plural smells)

A sensation, pleasant or unpleasant, detected by inhaling air (or, the case of water-breathing animals, water) carrying airborne molecules of a substance.

(physiology) The sense that detects odours.

A conclusion or intuition that a situation is wrong, more complex than it seems, or otherwise inappropriate.

Usage notes

• Adjectives often applied to "smell": acrid, awful, bad, disgusting, fishy, foul, fragrant, fresh, funny, funky, good, great, horrible, metallic, musty, nasty, nice, odd, pervasive, penetrating, pleasant, powerful, pungent, putrid, rancid, rank, rotten, sour, spoilt, salty, strange, stinky, strong, sweet, terrible, unpleasant.

Synonyms

• (sensation): see smell

(pleasant): aroma, fragrance, odor/odour, scent; see also aroma

(unpleasant): niff (informal), pong (informal), reek, stench, stink; see also stench

• (sense): olfaction (in technical use), sense of smell

Hyponyms

• bad smell

• code smell

• good smell

Verb

smell (third-person singular simple present smells, present participle smelling, simple past and past participle smelt or smelled)

(transitive) To sense a smell or smells.

Synonyms: detect, sense

(intransitive) Followed by like or of if descriptive: to have a particular smell, whether good or bad.

Synonyms: pong (informal), reek, stink, whiff (informal; these words refer to unpleasant smells)

(intransitive, without a modifier) To smell bad; to stink.

(intransitive, figurative) To have a particular tincture or smack of any quality; to savour.

(obsolete) To exercise sagacity.

To detect or perceive; often with out.

(obsolete) To give heed to.

Usage notes

• The sense “to smell bad, stink” is considered by some to be an incorrect substitute for stink.

Anagrams

• Mells, Mlles, mells

Source: Wiktionary

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Smell, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Smelled, Smelt (; p. pr. & vb. n. Smelling.] Etym: [OE. smellen, smillen, smullen; cf. LG. smellen, smelen, smölen, schmelen, to smoke, to reek, D. smeulen to smolder, and E. smolder. Cf. Smell, n.]

1. To perceive by the olfactory nerves, or organs of smell; to have a sensation of, excited through the nasal organs when affected by the appropriate materials or qualities; to obtain the scent of; as, to smell a rose; to smell perfumes.

2. To detect or perceive, as if by the sense of smell; to scent out;

– often with out. "I smell a device." Shak. Can you smell him out by that Shak.

3. To give heed to. [Obs.] From that time forward I began to smellthe Word of God, and forsook the school doctors. Latimer. To smell a rat, to have a sense of something wrong, not clearly evident; to have reason for suspicion. [Colloq.] -- To smell out, to find out by sagacity. [Colloq.]

Smell, v. i.

1. To affect the olfactory nerves; to have an odor or scent; -- often followed by of; as, to smell of smoke, or of musk.

2. To have a particular tincture or smack of any quality; to savor; as, a report smells of calumny. Praises in an enemy are superfluous, or smell of craft. Milton.

3. To exercise the sense of smell. Ex. xxx. 38.

4. To exercise sagacity. Shak.

Smell, n. Etym: [OE. smel, smil, smul, smeol. See Smell, v. t.] (Physiol.)

1. The sense or faculty by which certain qualities of bodies are perceived through the instrumentally of the olfactory nerves. See Sense.

2. The quality of any thing or substance, or emanation therefrom, which affects the olfactory organs; odor; scent; fragrance; perfume; as, the smell of mint. Breathing the smell of field and grove. Milton. That which, above all others, yields the sweetest smell in the air, is the violent. Bacon.

Syn.

– Scent; odor; perfume; fragrance.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

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