English
smell
Etymology

From Middle English smellen, smillen, smyllen, smullen, from Old English *smyllan, *smiellan, from Proto-West Germanic *smallijan, from Proto-Indo-European *smel-.

Pronunciation Noun

smell

  1. A sensation, pleasant or unpleasant, detected by inhaling air (or, the case of water-breathing animals, water) carrying airborne molecules of a substance.
    I love the smell of fresh bread.
    • 1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner's Sons, →OCLC ↗:
      The penetrating smell of cabbage reached the nose of Toad as he lay prostrate in his misery on the floor, and gave him the idea for a moment that perhaps life was not such a blank and desperate thing as he had imagined. But still he wailed, and kicked with his legs, and refused to be comforted. So the wise girl retired for the time, but, of course, a good deal of the smell of hot cabbage remained behind, as it will do, and Toad, between his sobs, sniffed and reflected, and gradually began to think new and inspiring thoughts: of chivalry, and poetry […]
  2. (physiology) The sense that detects odours.
  3. A conclusion or intuition that a situation is wrong, more complex than it seems, or otherwise inappropriate.
Synonyms Translations Translations Verb

smell (smells, present participle smelling; simple past and past participle smelled)

  1. (transitive) To sense a smell or smells.
    Synonyms: detect, sense
    I can smell fresh bread.
    Smell the milk and tell me whether it's gone off.
  2. (intransitive, copulative) Followed by like or of if descriptive: to have a particular smell, whether good or bad.
    Synonyms: pong, reek, stink, whiff
    The roses smell lovely.
    Her feet smell of cheese.
    The drunkard smelt like a brewery.
    • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC ↗:
      Philander went into the next room […] and came back with a salt mackerel […] . Next he put the mackerel in a fry-pan, and the shanty began to smell like a Banks boat just in from a v'yage.
  3. (intransitive, without a modifier) To smell bad; to stink.
    Ew, this stuff smells.
  4. (intransitive, figurative) To have a particular tincture or smack of any quality; to savour.
    A report smells of calumny.
    • 1649, J[ohn] Milton, ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC ↗:
      Praises in an enemy are superfluous, or smell of craft.
  5. To detect or perceive; often with out.
    • c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene iii]:
      I smell a device.
  6. (obsolete) To give heed to.
    • 1552, Hughe Latymer [i.e., Hugh Latimer], Augustine Bernher, compiler, “[The First Sermon]”, in Certayn Godly Sermons, Made uppon the Lords Prayer, […], London: […] John Day, […], published 1562, →OCLC ↗, folio 5, verso ↗:
      So from that tyme forwarde I began to ſmell the word of god, and forſoke the ſchole doctors and ſuch foolries.
  7. (transitive) To smell of; to have a smell of
    • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act IV, scene i]:
      I do smell all horse-piss
Translations Translations

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