I. smell 1 S2 W3 /smel/ BrE AmE noun
1 . [countable] the quality that people and animals recognize by using their nose
smell of
The air was filled with the smell of flowers.
What’s that horrible smell?
2 . [countable] an unpleasant smell:
I think the smell’s getting worse.
3 . [uncountable] the ability to notice or recognize smells:
loss of taste and smell
Dogs have a very good sense of smell.
4 . [countable usually singular] an act of smelling something:
Have a smell of this cheese; does it seem all right?
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COLLOCATIONS
■ adjectives
▪ strong
There was a strong smell of burning in the air.
▪ faint (=not strong)
I noticed a faint smell of perfume.
▪ overpowering (=very strong)
The smell of disinfectant was overpowering.
▪ nice/pleasant/lovely
There was a lovely smell of fresh coffee.
▪ bad/unpleasant/horrible etc
The smell in the shed was awful.
▪ a strange/funny/odd smell
What’s that funny smell?
▪ a sweet smell
She liked the sweet smell of hay in the barn.
▪ a delicious smell (=a pleasant smell of food)
There were delicious smells emanating from the kitchen.
▪ a sickly smell (=sweet and unpleasant)
the sweet, sickly smell of decaying human flesh
▪ a pungent smell formal (=strong and unpleasant)
A pungent smell of garlic filled the air.
▪ an acrid smell (=strong and bitter)
The acrid smell of smoke clung about the place.
▪ a musty/stale/sour smell (=old and not fresh)
The clothes in the wardrobe had a damp musty smell.
■ verbs
▪ have a strong/sweet etc smell
The flowers had a lovely sweet smell.
▪ be filled with a smell
The house was filled with the smell of baking bread.
▪ give off a smell (=produce a smell)
Rubber gives off a strong smell when it is burned.
▪ notice/smell a smell ( also detect a smell formal )
He detected a faint smell of blood.
▪ a smell comes from somewhere ( also a smell emanates from somewhere formal )
A delicious smell of baking came from the kitchen.
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He was getting complaints about the smell emanating from his shop.
▪ a smell wafts somewhere (=moves there through the air)
The smells wafting up the stairs from the kitchen were making her feel hungry.
■ COMMON ERRORS
► Do not say ' feel the smell of something '. Say smell something .
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THESAURUS
▪ smell something that you can recognize by breathing in through your nose:
the smell from the kitchen
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What’s that awful smell?
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the sweet smell of roses
▪ whiff something that you smell for a short time:
He caught a whiff of her perfume.
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a whiff of apple blossom
▪ scent a smell – used especially about the pleasant smell from flowers, plants, or fruit. Also used about the smell left by an animal:
The rose had a beautiful scent.
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Cats use their scent to mark their territory.
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the sharp, dying scent of autumn
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the heady scent (=strong scent) of magnolias
▪ fragrance/perfume a pleasant smell, especially from flowers, plants, or fruit. Fragrance and perfume are more formal than scent :
the sweet perfume of the orange blossoms
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Each mango has its own special fragrance.
▪ aroma formal a pleasant smell from food or coffee:
the aroma of fresh coffee
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The kitchen was filled with the aroma of mince pies.
▪ odour British English , odor American English formal an unpleasant smell:
An unpleasant odour was coming from the dustbins.
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the odor of stale tobacco smoke
▪ pong British English informal an unpleasant smell:
What’s that horrible pong?
▪ stink/stench a very strong and unpleasant smell:
I couldn’t get rid of the stink of sweat.
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The toilet gave off a terrible stench.
II. smell 2 S2 W3 BrE AmE verb ( past tense and past participle smelled especially American English or smelt /smelt/ British English )
1 . NOTICE A SMELL [transitive not in progressive] to notice or recognize a particular smell:
I can smell burning.
Can you smell something?
2 . HAVE A SMELL [linking verb] to have a particular smell
smell adj
The stew smelled delicious.
Mm! Something smells good!
smell of
My clothes smelt of smoke.
smell like
It smells like rotten eggs.
sweet-smelling/foul-smelling etc
sweet-smelling flowers
3 . HAVE A BAD SMELL [intransitive not in progressive] to have an unpleasant smell:
Your feet smell!
The room smelled to high heaven (=had a very bad smell) .
4 . PUT YOUR NOSE NEAR SOMETHING [transitive] to put your nose near something in order to discover what kind of smell it has SYN sniff :
She bent down and smelt the flowers.
5 . HAVE ABILITY [intransitive] 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 is going to happen, especially something bad:
Miller had smelled trouble the moment she said who she was.
7 . smell a rat informal to guess that something wrong or dishonest is happening
8 . smell wrong/fishy/odd etc informal to seem dishonest or untrue:
The whole thing is beginning to smell fishy to me.
⇨ come up/out smelling of roses at ↑ rose 1 (6)
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COLLOCATIONS (for Meaning 2)
■ adjectives
▪ smell good/nice etc
The food smelled good.
▪ smell delicious
That soup smells delicious.
▪ smell fresh
Rub your chopping board with lemon to keep it smelling fresh.
▪ smell sweet
A ripe melon will smell sweet.
▪ smell bad/awful etc
Cigarettes make your clothes smell awful.
▪ smell funny/strange
This place smells funny sometimes.
■ adverbs
▪ smell strongly of something
The man smelled strongly of alcohol.
▪ smell faintly of something
His suit smelled faintly of tobacco.
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GRAMMAR
Use an adjective after smell , not an adverb, to say that something has a good, bad, or strange smell:
▪
The house smelled awful (NOT awfully).
You can use smell with of to say what has given something a smell:
▪
Her breath smelled of onions (NOT smelled onions).
You can use smell with like to say that something has the same kind of smell as something else:
▪
a glass of wine that smelled like flowers
If you say that something or someone smells , you always mean they have a bad smell:
▪
Your socks smell.
To say that someone notices a smell, use can smell or just smell , followed by a noun:
▪
I can smell coffee.
▪
We smelled smoke.
smell something ↔ out phrasal verb
1 . to find something by smelling SYN sniff out :
They use dogs trained to smell out explosives.
2 . informal to find or recognize something because you have a natural ability to do this SYN sniff out :
They’ll be able to smell out any corruption.