adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a musty/stale/sour smell (= old and not fresh )
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The clothes in the wardrobe had a damp musty smell.
stale beer (= old beer which has an unpleasant smell )
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The hotel smelt of cigarette smoke and stale beer.
stale sweat
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The room smelt of stale sweat.
stale (= hard and no longer fresh )
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This bread’s stale – shall I throw it away?
stale (= not fresh and often full of smoke )
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The room was full of stale air and tobacco smoke.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
air
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Seven minutes left, plus a while longer breathing staler and staler air .
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He lurched forward and groped his way up the staircase, gasping and retching in the stale air .
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As the stale air travels slowly through the flues, so carbon dioxide flows out and oxygen flows in.
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I sit watching Victor's television through stale air thick with tobacco smoke.
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Walking clears the mind and removes stale air from the lungs.
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The office, which displayed portraits of both the last president and the new one, was filled with stale air .
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Very much like now, come to think of it: bored and fidgeting, breathing stale air while time stands still.
bread
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The gaoler returned hours later with a cup of brackish water, a bowl of badly-cooked meat and hard, stale bread .
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She stopped cooking, and for days the boy and his sisters ate stale bread and tamarind jam by the spoonful.
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Jamie was moping around his flat, existing on cups of tea and stale bread toast.
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Say what you like, but this stale bread they served here was no substitute.
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Non-washable papers just need brushing down or rubbing with stale bread or a soft rubber.
smell
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It had the slightly stale smell of such untended places.
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After the crisp freshness of the shop, the flat had a musty stale smell .
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The scent of rose water hung in the air, covering the stale smell of pipe tobacco and strong drink.
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The stale smell of socks and the constant din contributed to the normal post-gymnastic atmosphere.
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Rain recognized the stale smell , and her glance went to the half-open shutters.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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stale advertising images
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stale cookies
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All we got was a cup of tea and a bit of stale cake.
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All we hear around here is stale , old gossip.
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It was cold outside and the smell of stale tobacco clung to their winter coats.
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Nicholson's routine was full of stale old jokes that we'd all heard before.
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Put the biscuits back in the tin or they'll go stale .
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She noticed the stale smell of drink on his breath.
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The air in the office was stale and heavy.
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This bread's stale - have we got another loaf?
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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A stale breath came from him, sour, disordered, which was not only because he might have drunk too much.
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My impression is their sites are kind of stale .
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Sometimes scarred tissue feels tough, its resilience like a stale marshmallow.
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The money smelled stale , and humid.
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Then, just as it seemed in danger of becoming stale and repetitive, it threw up De La Soul.