Showing results for "smelt"

• past tense form of smell.
• past participle of smell.

smelt

¹ American  

[smelt] / smɛlt /

verb (used with object)

1. to fuse or melt (ore) in order to separate the metal contained.

2. to obtain or refine (metal) in this way.

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smelt ² American  

[smelt] / smɛlt /

noun

• smelt,
  plural
• smelts
  plural

1. any of various small, silvery food fishes of the family Osmeridae, of cold northern waters, as the North American rainbow smelt, Osmerus mordax.

2. any of several superficially similar but unrelated fishes, especially certain silversides, of California.

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smelt ³ American  

[smelt] / smɛlt /

verb

1. a simple past tense and past participle of smell.

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smelt ¹ British  

/ smɛlt /

verb

1. a past tense and past participle of smell

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smelt ² British  

/ smɛlt /

verb

1. (tr) to extract (a metal) from (an ore) by heating

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smelt ³ British  

/ smɛlt /

noun

1. any marine or freshwater salmonoid food fish of the family Osmeridae, such as Osmerus eperlanus of Europe, having a long silvery body and occurring in temperate and cold northern waters

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smelt Scientific  

/ smĕlt /

1. To melt ores in order to extract the metals they contain. Oxide ores, such as iron ore, are smelted with carbon, which serves as a fuel and changes the ore into a reduced metal.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• smelt
  plural
• smelts
  plural

Etymology

Origin of smelt¹

First recorded in 1535–45; probably from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German smelten; cognate with German schmelzen “to melt, smelt, fuse”; see origin at melt ¹,

Origin of smelt²

First recorded before 900; Middle English smelt(e), smelth, Old English smelt, smylt; compare Norwegian smelta “whiting”

Explanation

No, this verb doesn't involve using your nose. When you smelt metal, you remove it from ore, or rock. Heat is required to smelt iron. Smelt looks a lot like melt and that is an easy way to remember what this process involves. To smelt metal, you have to heat the rock, which is called ore, until the metal inside it melts or liquefies. That metal is the part that has use and value, but hard work is needed to extract it.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

smelt smelts

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

As the state has relied heavily on its water, native fish such as Chinook salmon, steelhead trout and longfin smelt have declined.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026

Meanwhile a fire in Blaenavon, Torfaen, could be smelt as far away as Cardiff.

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 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

The rain smelt of moss and earth and of the black bark of trees.

From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier

I used to avoid the old-school dishes – baccala, smelts, anchovies.

From Salon ● Dec. 14, 2025

"I don't think it would have happened from any area other than Aston with all of those foundries and factories and the smelts and the bomb sites," he adds.

From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2025

A traditional selection includes baccala, squid, octopus, eel, shrimp, clams and smelts.

From New York Times ● Dec. 6, 2021

Laborers — partly fleeing potato famines in Scotland and Ireland — arrived in search of sustaining work in the flourishing iron smelts, coal and shipbuilding yards and textile factories.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 2015

I lay down again, and sniffed smelling-salts, till cook came back to say the fishman was very sorry, but he had no smelts, and what would I have instead?

From A Question of Marriage by Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

Related Words

• bake
• boil
• broil
• grill
• ignite
• melt
• reheat
• roast
• sear
• steam
• thaw
• toast
• warm