smell

1 /smel/ noun

1 (C) the quality that people and animals recognize by using their nose: Some flowers have a stronger smell than others. | The wine has a light, lemony smell.

(+ of): I opened the window to get rid of the smell of beer and cigarettes. —compare aroma, fragrance

2 (C) an unpleasant smell: Pooh! What a smell!

—compare odour, stink 2 (1)

3 (U) the ability to notice or recognize smells: A mole finds its food by smell alone. | sense of smell: Blind people often have an excellent sense of smell.

4 (countable usually singular) an act of smelling something: Have a smell of this cheese; does it seem all right?

2 verb past tense and past participle smelled especially AmE smelt /smelt/ BrE

1 A PARTICULAR SMELL (intransitive always + adv/prep; linking verb + adj) to have a particular smell: smell nice/good/spicy etc: That soup smells delicious! | a sweet-smelling flower

(+ of): The car smelled of leather and wood. | smell like: It smells like a hospital in here - has anyone been using disinfectant?

2 UNPLEASANT (I) to have an unpleasant smell: His breath smells. | We must clean out the bird-cage - it's starting to smell.

3 RECOGNIZE A SMELL (T) to notice or recognize a particular smell: I think I smell gas! | smell that: I could smell that the milk wasn't fresh.

4 PUT YOUR NOSE NEAR STH (T) to put your nose near something to discover what kind of smell it has; sniff 1 (2): Diane smelled his breath to see if he'd been drinking.

5 ABILITY TO SMELL (I) to have the ability to notice and recognize smells: I've got a cold and I can't smell.

6 smell trouble/danger etc to feel that something bad is going to happen: He smelt trouble and got up to leave.

7 smell a rat informal to guess that something wrong or dishonest is happening: They know we hate them and will smell a rat if we try to be nice to them.

8 smell fishy if a story, excuse etc smells fishy, you think it is likely to be untrue: Max can't be working late again! It smells very fishy to me.

9 SEEM (linking verb) informal to seem: smell wrong/odd/worrying etc: Sarah's description of events didn't smell right to me.

smell sb/sth out phrasal verb (T)

1 to find something by smelling: The hounds smelt out a fox.

2 informal to find something such as trouble or violence because you have a natural ability to do this: Wherever the fighting is, Sergeant Cooper can smell it out.

3 to make a place smell unpleasant: That fish is smelling the kitchen out.