Definition of "smell"

smell

/smɛl/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural smells
1. A sensation, pleasant or unpleasant, detected by inhaling air (or, the case of water-breathing animals, water) carrying airborne molecules of a substance.
  Quotations
  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 […]
  1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons
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.
  Quotations
  I’m just saying, this has a bad smell to it.
  2018 February 8, Carl Schroers, chapter 8, in Wrestling with Time Lost, Lulu Press
verb
third-person singular simple present smells, present participle smelling, simple past and past participle smelled or smelt
1. (transitive) To sense a smell or smells.
2. (intransitive, copulative) Followed by like or of if descriptive: to have a particular smell, whether good or bad.
  Quotations
  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.
  1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 8, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
3. (intransitive, without a modifier) To smell bad; to stink.
4. (intransitive, figurative) To have a particular tincture or smack of any quality; to savour.
  Quotations
  Praises in an enemy are superfluous, or smell of craft.
  1649, J[ohn] Milton, ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […]
  Este's been losing sleep / Her husband's acting different and it smells like infidelity
  2021, Taylor Swift (lyrics and music), “No Body, No Crime”
5. To detect or perceive; often with out.
  Quotations
  I smell a device.
  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, [Act II, scene iii]
6. (obsolete) To give heed to.
  Quotations
  So from that tyme forwarde I began to ſmell the word of god, and forſoke the ſchole doctors and ſuch foolries.
  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, folio 5, verso
7. (transitive) To smell of; to have a smell of
  Quotations
  I do smell all horse-piss
  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, [Act IV, scene i]

Definition of "smell"

smell

noun

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verb

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