smelly
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of smelly
Explanation
Smelly things give off a bad odor. After her joyful swim in a swampy lake, your dog will probably be smelly. You could call smelly things stinky, putrid, or rank. Your brother's sweaty feet are smelly, and your neighbor's cabbage soup is smelly too. While things like flowers and homemade gingerbread are fragrant or aromatic, smelly things — like your neighborhood on garbage day — are just plain smelly. We know that smelly comes from smell, "odor, aroma, or stench," which followed the verb smell, "emit or perceive an odor," but the word's origin is unknown.
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.
Trees have less dramatic ways to screw up your day: Their roots can infiltrate cracks in septic or sewage pipes, blocking the system and wreaking expensive, smelly havoc.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 4, 2026
Gas generators, the traditional option, are noisy, high maintenance and smelly.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 1, 2026
One used the codeword "smelly bananas" to signal things were getting too much.
From BBC • Dec. 21, 2025
The ones I could actually get were dark, smelly or unsafe.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 14, 2025
Madame paused to rearrange her skirts, now that the smelly baby was gone from her lap, and drew her three eldest children close to her.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
