smell
A sensation, pleasant or unpleasant, detected by inhaling air (or, the case of water-breathing animals, water) carrying airborne molecules of a substance.
Example
“I love the smell of fresh bread.”
Other meanings
The sense that detects odours.
A conclusion or intuition that a situation is wrong, more complex than it seems, or otherwise inappropriate.
Related words
- code smell
- money does not smell
- new-car smell
- smaste
- smell blindness
- smell fox
- smell trap
- smell-alike
- smell-brain
- smell-feast
- smell-o-meter
- smell-o-rama
Example sentences
Word history
From Middle English "smellen".
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “smell” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; example sentences are from Tatoeba, credited to their authors above, published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.