smell
Americanverb (used with object)
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smells,
present (3rd person singular)
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smelled,
past participle, past
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smelt,
past participle, past
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smelling
present participle
-
to perceive the odor or scent of through the nose by means of the olfactory nerves; inhale the odor of.
I smell something burning.
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to test by the sense of smell.
She smelled the meat to see if it was fresh.
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to perceive, detect, or discover by shrewdness or sagacity.
The detective smelled foul play.
verb (used without object)
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smells,
present (3rd person singular)
-
smelled,
past participle, past
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smelt,
past participle, past
-
smelling
present participle
-
to perceive something by its odor or scent.
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to search or investigate (followed by around orabout ).
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to give off or have an odor or scent.
Do the yellow roses smell?
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to give out an offensive odor; stink.
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to have a particular odor (followed byof ).
My hands smell of fish.
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to have a trace or suggestion (followed byof ).
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Informal. to be of inferior quality; stink.
The play is good, but the direction smells.
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Informal. to have the appearance or a suggestion of guilt or corruption.
They may be honest, but the whole situation smells.
noun
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smells
plural
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the sense of smell; faculty of smelling.
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the quality of a thing that is or may be smelled; odor; scent.
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a trace or suggestion.
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an act or instance of smelling.
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a pervading appearance, character, quality, or influence.
the smell of money.
verb phrase
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smell out to look for or detect as if by smelling; search out.
to smell out enemy spies.
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smell up to fill with an offensive odor; stink up.
The garbage smelled up the yard.
idioms
verb
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(tr) to perceive the scent or odour of (a substance) by means of the olfactory nerves
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(copula) to have a specified smell; appear to the sense of smell to be
the beaches smell of seaweed
some tobacco smells very sweet
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to emit an odour (of)
the park smells of flowers
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(intr) to emit an unpleasant odour; stink
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to detect through shrewdness or instinct
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(intr) to have or use the sense of smell; sniff
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to give indications (of)
he smells of money
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(intr; foll by around, about, etc) to search, investigate, or pry
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(copula) to be or seem to be untrustworthy or corrupt
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to detect something suspicious
noun
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that sense (olfaction) by which scents or odours are perceived
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anything detected by the sense of smell; odour; scent
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a trace or indication
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the act or an instance of smelling
Synonym Usage
See odor.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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smellernoun
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outsmellverb (used with object)
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smell-lessadjective
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smellableadjective
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unsmelledadjective
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unsmellingadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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smellsimple
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smellssimple
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have smelledperfect
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have smeltperfect
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has smelledperfect
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has smeltperfect
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am smellingprogressive
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are smellingprogressive
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is smellingprogressive
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have been smellingperfect progressive
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has been smellingperfect progressive
Past
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smelledsimple
-
smeltsimple
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had smelledperfect
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had smeltperfect
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was smellingprogressive
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were smellingprogressive
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had been smellingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of smell
First recorded in 1125–75; early Middle English smell, smull (noun), smellen, smullen (verb); origin uncertain.
Explanation
Smell is one of your five senses—the one you use your nose for. Dogs have such a sharp sense of smell that they can sniff out things like explosives and drugs. Your sense of smell gives you important information, like "this milk is sour," or "I need a shower." An individual odor or scent is also a smell, and to perceive it with your nose is to smell it. If someone says, "You smell," it's not a compliment—what they mean is, "You don't smell good." While experts believe that smell has an Old English root, it was never recorded.
Vocabulary lists containing smell
Smell Words
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Vocabulary from Readings 1, Unit 4
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Wong says smell helps people connect to nature and works in harmony with the sight of beautiful flowers to create a peaceful atmosphere.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
Dr Kurr, from Bangor University, said that scientists were just starting to realise that "these wonderful animals can smell changes in water that signal a marine invasion which otherwise might have gone unnoticed".
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
To investigate how cannabinoids influence fear and anxiety, researchers exposed mice to a threatening smell derived from fox urine.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 7, 2026
“This is not passing the smell test with how the money is being allocated,” Barger said at a meeting in May.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026
Although she passed away, to this day, when I smell jasmine, a part of me still expects her to be somewhere nearby.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
Add it all up and the public panic of the past few weeks smells a great deal more like epiphenomena—a thing incidental to the real thing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
From wafting tar pits and smells of the beach to native plants and a chocolate factory, our readers smelled Los Angeles and told us about it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026
A room that smells like citrus, pine, or flowers is often associated with cleanliness.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 26, 2026
And the “Ocean Breeze” vent clip by Febreze that smells nothing like the ocean to her.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
The Blue Door is dark no matter what time of the day you visit, and it smells of popcorn and beer.
From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko
The place supposedly smelled of cheddar for weeks afterward.
From Salon ● Sep. 11, 2026
“I saw thick smoke and smelled a strong odor of gunpowder,” she said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
"The lab smelled like a fish market," she says.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 23, 2026
We were front row and we like smelled her.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
It smelled like rotting meat and sour ale, worse than a troll’s breath.
From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff
Chinook salmon, steelhead trout, smelt and sturgeon have declined dramatically over the last few decades.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
Alumina is a substance extracted from bauxite ore that is mainly used as the raw material to smelt aluminum metal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
His deceit was uncovered when Helen's son smelt a rat and applied for Clare's Law, external, where you can ask if someone has a history of abusive offending.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
Look no further than GameStop’s $56 billion bid for eBay, which is the equivalent of a smelt swallowing a whale.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 4, 2026
Those parma violets, I smelt, fabrics, an ambery perfume, and something rotting.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
The Seahawks, defending Super Bowl champions, got a collective whiff of smelling salts before Sunday’s game, having suffered an embarrassing loss at Washington a week earlier.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2026
A citizens' group said on social media that one resident in the street where the explosion happened had alerted authorities after smelling a possible gas leak.
From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026
Compared with both the water control and milk chocolate conditions, smelling dark chocolate was consistently associated with lower hunger, less desire and intention to eat, and greater feelings of fullness before exercise.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 15, 2026
“People are seeing with their own eyes, and I think frankly smelling with their own nose,” Mr. Sabet, 47, says in a phone interview.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
I breathed deep every time we stopped at a job site, smelling the fresh-cut grass, and thought back to how simple and pure my life had been when I mowed lawns as a summer job.
From "Lawn Boy Returns" by Gary Paulsen
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