smell

From Middle English smellen, smillen, smyllen, smullen, from Old English *smyllan, *smiellan (“to smell, emit fumes”), from Proto-West Germanic *smallijan (“to glow, burn, smoulder”), from Proto-Indo-European *smel- (“to burn, smoke, smoulder; tar, pitch”). The noun is from Middle English smel, smil, smul (“smell, odour”). Related to Saterland Frisian smeele (“to smoulder”), Middle Dutch smōlen (“to burn, smoulder”) (whence Dutch smeulen (“to smoulder”)), Middle Low German smölen (“to be hazy, be dusty”) (whence Low German smölen (“smoulder”)), Low German smullen (“emit smoke”), West Flemish smoel (“stuffy, muggy, hazy”), Danish smul (“dust, powder”), Lithuanian smilkyti (“to incense, fumigate”), Lithuanian smilkti (“to smudge, smolder, fume, reek”), Lithuanian smalkinti (“to fume”), Middle Irish smál, smól, smúal (“fire, gleed, embers, ashes”), Russian смола́ (smolá, “resin, tar”). Compare smoulder, smother.

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: smĕl, IPA^(key): /smɛl/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛl

smell (countable and uncountable, plural smells)

1. A sensation, pleasant or unpleasant, detected by inhaling air (or, the case of water-breathing animals, water) carrying airborne molecules of a substance.

   I love the smell of fresh bread.

   • 1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC:

     The penetrating smell of cabbage reached the nose of Toad as he lay prostrate in his misery on the floor, and gave him the idea for a moment that perhaps life was not such a blank and desperate thing as he had imagined. But still he wailed, and kicked with his legs, and refused to be comforted. So the wise girl retired for the time, but, of course, a good deal of the smell of hot cabbage remained behind, as it will do, and Toad, between his sobs, sniffed and reflected, and gradually began to think new and inspiring thoughts: of chivalry, and poetry […]

2. (physiology) The sense that detects odours.
3. A conclusion or intuition that a situation is wrong, more complex than it seems, or otherwise inappropriate.
   • 2018 February 8, Carl Schroers, chapter 8, in Wrestling with Time Lost, Lulu Press:

     I’m just saying, this has a bad smell to it.

• (sensation): see Thesaurus:smell
  • (pleasant): aroma, fragrance, odor/odour, scent; see also Thesaurus:aroma
  • (unpleasant): niff (informal), pong (informal), reek, stench, stink; see also Thesaurus:stench
• (sense): olfaction (in technical use), sense of smell

smell (third-person singular simple present smells, present participle smelling, simple past and past participle smelled or smelt)

1. (transitive) To sense a smell or smells.

   Synonyms: detect, sense

   I can smell fresh bread.

   Smell the milk and tell me whether it's gone off.

2. (intransitive, copulative) Followed by like or of if descriptive: to have a particular smell, whether good or bad.

   Synonyms: (informal) pong, reek, stink, (informal; these words refer to unpleasant smells) whiff

   The roses smell lovely.

   Her feet smell of cheese.

   The drunkard smelt like a brewery.

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     Philander went into the next room […] and came back with a salt mackerel […] . Next he put the mackerel in a fry-pan, and the shanty began to smell like a Banks boat just in from a v'yage.

3. (intransitive, without a modifier) To smell bad; to stink.

   Ew, this stuff smells.

4. (intransitive, figurative) To have a particular tincture or smack of any quality; to savour.

   A report smells of calumny.

   • 1649, J[ohn] Milton, ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC:

     Praises in an enemy are superfluous, or smell of craft.

   • 2021, Taylor Swift (lyrics and music), “No Body, No Crime”:

     Este's been losing sleep / Her husband's acting different and it smells like infidelity

5. To detect or perceive; often with out.
   • c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:

     I smell a device.

6. (obsolete) To give heed to.
   • 1552, Hughe Latymer [i.e., Hugh Latimer], Augustine Bernher, compiler, “[The First Sermon]”, in Certayn Godly Sermons, Made uppon the Lords Prayer, […], London: […] John Day, […], published 1562, →OCLC, folio 5, verso:

     So from that tyme forwarde I began to ſmell the word of god, and forſoke the ſchole doctors and ſuch foolries.

7. (transitive) To smell of; to have a smell of
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     I do smell all horse-piss

• The sense “to smell bad, stink” is considered by some to be an incorrect (euphemistic) substitute for stink.

• anosmia
• sense

• “smell”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “smell”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• Mells, Mlles, mells

smell (strong)

1. first-person singular present indicative of smella
2. second-person singular imperative of smella

smell (weak)

1. second-person singular imperative of smella

From the verb smelle.

smell n (definite singular smellet, indefinite plural smell, definite plural smella or smellene)
smell m (definite singular smellen, indefinite plural smell or smeller, definite plural smellene)

1. a bang (sudden loud noise)

• “smell” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

• IPA^(key): /smɛlː/

From the verb smelle.

smell n (definite singular smellet, indefinite plural smell, definite plural smella)
smell m (definite singular smellen, indefinite plural smellar, definite plural smellane)

1. a bang (sudden loud noise)

smell m (definite singular smellen, indefinite plural smellar, definite plural smellane)

1. a knock, an impact

• “smell” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.