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Smell   /smɛl/   Listen
noun
Smell  n.  (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." "That which, above all others, yields the sweetest smell in the air, is the violent."
Synonyms: Scent; odor; perfume; fragrance.


verb
Smell  v. t.  (past & past part. smelt or smelled; pres. part. smelling)  
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." "Can you smell him out by that?"
3.
To give heed to. (Obs.) "From that time forward I began to smellthe Word of God, and forsook the school doctors."
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.  (past & past part. smelt or smelled; pres. part. smelling)  
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."
3.
To exercise the sense of smell.
4.
To exercise sagacity.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Smell" Quotes from Famous Books



... wind.... In the meanwhile nobody went home; on the contrary hundreds of newcomers filtered in, filling the great room solid with stern-faced soldiers and workmen who stood for hours and hours, indefatigably intent. The air was thick with cigarette smoke, and human breathing, and the smell of coarse clothes ...
— Ten Days That Shook the World • John Reed
... whole of the day begging in the streets and dodging the guard, and even so I only collected four sous. I could have got more perhaps, only that at about midday the smell of food from an eating- house turned me sick and faint, and when I regained consciousness I found myself huddled up under a doorway and evening gathering in fast around me. If Mme. la Marquise could go two days without food I ought to go four. I struggled to my feet; fortunately I ...
— The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel • Baroness Orczy
... for a moment I seemed to feel the smell of lilac. Dick was once—nice to me under a lilac. Oh, Mr. Don—' She goes to him like a child, and he soothes ...
— Echoes of the War • J. M. Barrie
... tell you that in the last few weeks before he left you your dad grew old. He's grown old before, but never as old as that. The other times, the mere sight and smell of Africa started his blood again. But this time he stayed ...
— Through stained glass • George Agnew Chamberlain
... Rousseau; or powdered courtiers, uttering epigrams against kings and religions,—straws that foretold the whirlwind. Paul Courier was right! Frenchmen are Frenchmen still; they are full of fine phrases, and their thoughts smell of the theatre; they mistake foil for diamonds, the Grotesque for the Natural, the Exaggerated for the Sublime: but still I say, Paul Courier was right,—there is more honesty now in a single salon in Paris ...
— Alice, or The Mysteries, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton


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