odour
[oh-der]
- odor.
Show More
odor
[oh-der]
- the property of a substance that activates the sense of smell: to have an unpleasant odor.
- a sensation perceived by the sense of smell; scent.
- an agreeable scent; fragrance.
- a disagreeable smell.
- a quality or property characteristic or suggestive of something: An odor of suspicion surrounded his testimony.
- repute: in bad odor with the whole community.
- Archaic. something that has a pleasant scent.
Show More
Also especially British, o·dour.
Origin of odor
1250–1300; Middle English < Old French < Latin
Synonyms
3. aroma, redolence, perfume. Odor, smell, scent, stench all refer to sensations perceived through the nose by the olfactory nerves. Odor and smell in literal contexts are often interchangeable. Figuratively, odor also usually occurs in positive contexts: the odor of sanctity. Smell is the most general and neutral of these two terms, deriving connotation generally from the context in which it is used: the tempting smell of fresh-baked bread; the rank smell of rotting vegetation. In figurative contexts smell may be either positive or negative: the sweet smell of success; a strong smell of duplicity pervading the affair. Scent refers either to delicate and pleasing aromas or to faint, barely perceptible smells: the scent of lilacs on the soft spring breeze; deer alarmed by the scent of man. Stench is strongly negative, referring both literally and figuratively to what is foul, sickening, or repulsive: the stench of rotting flesh; steeped in the stench of iniquity and treason.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for odour
Contemporary Examples
It filled my head, that muttering sound, like thick oily smoke from a fat-rendering vat or an odour of noisome decay.
Read ‘The King in Yellow,’ the ‘True Detective’ Reference That’s the Key to the ShowRobert W. Chambers
February 20, 2014
Historical Examples
When the tomb of Saint Cecilia was opened an odour of roses came up from her coffin.
The DreamEmile Zola
The oil will be found to have imbibed the odour of the flowers.
Directions for Cookery, in its Various BranchesEliza Leslie
There was an odour of pomade and vanilla that made me feel sick.
My Double LifeSarah Bernhardt
The odour of the victuals seemed to thicken into a kind of smoke.
The Three Cities Trilogy, CompleteEmile Zola
To one the sonata is a world of odour and beauty, to another of soothing only and sweetness.
A Dish Of OrtsGeorge MacDonald
odour
US odor
- the property of a substance that gives it a characteristic scent or smell
- a pervasive quality about somethingan odour of dishonesty
- repute or regard (in the phrases in good odour, in bad odour)
Show More
Word Origin
C13: from Old French odur, from Latin odor; related to Latin olēre to smell, Greek ōzein
odor
- the US spelling of odour
Show More
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
Word Origin and History for odour
odor
n.
c.1300, from Anglo-French odour, from Old French odor "smell, perfume, fragrance" (12c., Modern French odeur) and directly from Latin odor "a smell, a scent" (pleasant or disagreeable), from PIE *od- "to smell" (cf. Latin olere "emit a smell, to smell of," with Sabine -l- for -d-; Greek ozein "to smell;" Armenian hotim "I smell;" Lithuanian uodziu "to smell").
Good or bad odor, in reference to repute, estimation, is from 1835. Odor of sanctity (1756) is from French odeur de sainteté (17c.) "sweet or balsamic scent said to be exhaled by the bodies of eminent saints at death or upon disinterment."
Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
odor
(ō′dər)- The property or quality of a thing that affects, stimulates, or is perceived by the sense of smell.
- A sensation, stimulation, or perception of the sense of smell.
Show More
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.