fetor

or foe·tor

[ fee-ter ]
See synonyms for fetor on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a strong, offensive smell; stench.

Origin of fetor

1
1475–1500; <Latin, equivalent to fēt- (stem of fētēre to stink) + -or-or1; replacing earlier fetour<Middle French <Latin fētōr-, stem of fētor

Words Nearby fetor

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use fetor in a sentence

  • He was blinded by light and deafened by sound and his nostrils were filled with the nauseating fetor of jungle and decay.

    Operation Terror | William Fitzgerald Jenkins
  • Liquor gurgled down; the smell of whisky added its fetor to the stench of oil, bilge, sweat and blood.

    Cursed | George Allan England
  • In vain it was to rake for Ambergriese in the paunch of this Leviathan, insufferable fetor denying not inquiry.

    Moby Dick; or The Whale | Herman Melville
  • Dalgard's less sensitive nostrils picked up a new scent, the not-to-be-missed fetor of damp underground ways where water stood.

    Star Born | Andre Norton
  • Lemna minor where the crusts and the muco-purulent discharge are very abundant with fetor (in rhinitis atrophics).

British Dictionary definitions for fetor

fetor

foetor

/ (ˈfiːtə, -tɔː) /


noun
  1. an offensive stale or putrid odour; stench

Origin of fetor

1
C15: from Latin, from fētēre to stink

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012