smell
[smel]
verb, smelled or smelt, smell⋅ing, noun | 1. | to perceive the odor or scent of through the nose by means of the olfactory nerves; inhale the odor of: I smell something burning. |
| 2. | to test by the sense of smell: She smelled the meat to see if it was fresh. |
| 3. | to perceive, detect, or discover by shrewdness or sagacity: The detective smelled foul play. |
| 4. | to perceive something by its odor or scent. |
| 5. | to search or investigate (fol. by around or about). |
| 6. | to give off or have an odor or scent: Do the yellow roses smell? |
| 7. | to give out an offensive odor; stink. |
| 8. | to have a particular odor (fol. by of): My hands smell of fish. |
| 9. | to have a trace or suggestion (fol. by of). |
| 10. | Informal. to be of inferior quality; stink: The play is good, but the direction smells. |
| 11. | Informal. to have the appearance or a suggestion of guilt or corruption: They may be honest, but the whole situation smells. |
| 12. | the sense of smell; faculty of smelling. |
| 13. | the quality of a thing that is or may be smelled; odor; scent. |
| 14. | a trace or suggestion. |
| 15. | an act or instance of smelling. |
| 16. | a pervading appearance, character, quality, or influence: the smell of money. |
| 17. | smell out, to look for or detect as if by smelling; search out: to smell out enemy spies. |
| 18. | smell up, to fill with an offensive odor; stink up: The garbage smelled up the yard. |
| 19. | smell a rat. rat (def. 6). |
1125–75; early ME smell, smull (n.), smellen, smullen (v.) < ?

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Smell
Smell\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Smelled, Smelt; p. pr. & vb. n. Smelling.] [OE. smellen, smillen, smullen; cf. LG. smellen, smelen, sm["o]len, 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
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
Smell\, n. [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.Cite This Source
smell (v.)
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Main Entry: 1smell
Pronunciation: 'smel
Function: verb
Inflected Forms: smelled /'smeld/ or smelt /'smelt/;smell·ing
transitive senses
: to perceive the odor or scent of through stimuli affecting the olfactory nerves : get the odor or scent of with the nosesmell intransitive senses
: to exercise the sense of smell
Main Entry: 2smell
Function: noun
1 : the property of a thing that affects the olfactory organs :
2 : the special sense concerned with the perception of odor
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smell (směl)
v. smelled or smelt (smělt), smell·ing, smells
To perceive the scent of something by means of the olfactory nerves. n.
The sense by which odors are perceived; the olfactory sense.
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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smell
In addition to the idioms beginning with smell, also see come up (smelling like) roses; stink (smell) to high heaven.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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smell
the detection and identification by sensory organs of airborne chemicals. The concept of smell, as it applies to humans, becomes less distinct when invertebrates and lower vertebrates (fish and amphibians) are considered, because many lower animals detect chemicals in the environment by means of receptors in various locations on the body, and no invertebrate possesses a chemoreceptive structure resembling the vertebrate nasal cavity. For this reason, many authorities prefer to regard smell as distance chemoreception and taste as contact chemoreception.
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