Definition of "scent"
scent
noun
countable and uncountable, plural scents
Quotations
A smell left by an animal that may be used for tracing.
Quotations
He […] twice to-day pick’d out the dullest scent; / Trust me, I take him for the better dog.
c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)
But see how the dogs puzzle about there. Come, Mr Frank, the scent’s cold;
1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter VII, in Rob Roy. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, page 151
Quotations
Keen is the scent of the slaveholder; like the fangs of the rattlesnake, his malice retains its poison long; and, although it is now nearly seventeen years since I made my escape, it is well to be careful, in dealing with the circumstances relating to it.
1855, Frederick Douglass, chapter 21, in My Bondage and My Freedom. […], New York, Auburn, N.Y.: Miller, Orton & Mulligan […], part I (Life as a Slave), page 322
(figuratively) Any trail or trace that can be followed to find something or someone, such as the paper left behind in a paperchase.
Quotations
Before marriage it is their business to please men; and after, with a few exceptions, they follow the same scent with all the persevering pertinacity of instinct.
1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, chapter 13, in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, 1st American edition, Boston, Mass.: […] Peter Edes for Thomas and Andrews, […], published 1792
verb
third-person singular simple present scents, present participle scenting, simple past and past participle scented
(intransitive, obsolete) To have a smell; (figuratively) to give an impression (of something).
Quotations
Thunderbolts & lightnings […] do sent strongly of brimstone:
1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XXXV.] 15.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 2nd tome, London: […] Adam Islip, published 1635, page 557