Lexic.us

Definition of Smell

1. Verb. Inhale the odor of; perceive by the olfactory sense. "The customs agents smell the bags for drugs "

2. Noun. The sensation that results when olfactory receptors in the nose are stimulated by particular chemicals in gaseous form. ; "She loved the smell of roses"

3. Verb. Emit an odor. "The food does smell good "; "The soup smells good"

4. Noun. Any property detected by the olfactory system.

5. Verb. Smell bad. "He rarely washes, and he smells"

6. Noun. The general atmosphere of a place or situation and the effect that it has on people. "It had the smell of treason"

7. Verb. Have an element suggestive (of something). "This passage smells of plagiarism"

8. Noun. The faculty that enables us to distinguish scents.

9. Verb. Become aware of not through the senses but instinctively. "Smell out corruption"

10. Noun. The act of perceiving the odor of something.

Definition of Smell

1. v. t. To perceive by the olfactory nerves, or organs of smell; to have a sensation of, excited through the nasal organs when affected by the appropriate materials or qualities; to obtain the scent of; as, to smell a rose; to smell perfumes.

2. v. i. To affect the olfactory nerves; to have an odor or scent; -- often followed by of; as, to smell of smoke, or of musk.

3. n. The sense or faculty by which certain qualities of bodies are perceived through the instrumentally of the olfactory nerves. See Sense.

Definition of Smell

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

2. Noun. (physiology) The sense that detects odours. ¹

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

4. Verb. (intransitive) To have a particular smell, whether good or bad; if descriptive, followed by "like" or "of". ¹

5. Verb. (intransitive without a modifier) smell bad, stink ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Smell

1. to perceive by means of the olfactory nerves [v SMELLED or SMELT, SMELLING, SMELLS]

Medical Definition of Smell

1. 1. The sense or faculty by which certain qualities of bodies are perceived through the instrumentally of the olfactory nerves. See Sense. 2. The quality of any thing or substance, or emanation therefrom, which affects the olfactory organs; odour; scent; fragrance; perfume; as, the smell of mint. "Breathing the smell of field and grove." (Milton) "That which, above all others, yields the sweetest smell in the air, is the violent." (Bacon) Synonym: Scent, odour, perfume, fragrance. Origin: OE. Smel, smil, smul, smeol. See Smell. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Smell

smeeth smeeths smeg smegger smeggers smeggy smeghead smegheads smegmalith smegmas

smegmatic smell (current term) smell-brain smell-feast smell-feasts smell-o-meter smell-o-meters smell-o-rama smell-o-ramas smell a rat

smell blood smell blood in the water smell fishy smell fox smell like a rose smell of an oily rag

Literary usage of Smell

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Psychology: General Introduction by Charles Hubbard Judd (1907)
"Taste and smell differentiations of a primitive chemical sense. C. Sensations of Taste and smell Sensations of taste and smell may be considered together. ..."

2. Psychology: General Introduction by Charles Hubbard Judd (1907)
"PHYSICAL VIBRATION PHYSIOLOGICAL PROCESS Taste and smell differentiations of ... Indeed, in the primitive forms of animal life, taste and smell constitute a ..."

3. The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge (1918)
"This is the first place in the animal scale where we have evidence of any sense analogous to smell, which perceives chemical substances in the form of vapor ..."

4. Principles of General Physiology by William Maddock Bayliss (1920)
"smell It is impossible to make a distinction between the differentiated chemical sense of water .animals and that of smell in land animals. ..."

5. Enquiry Into Plants and Minor Works on Odours and Weather Signs by Theophrastus (1916)
"cases it is not obvious to us because, one might almost say, our sense of smell is inferior to that ot all other animals. Thus things which appear to us to ..."

6. Psychology: General Introduction by Charles Hubbard Judd (1907)
"Indeed, in the primitive forms of animal life, taste and smell constitute a ... the sense of smell is distinctly later in its development, appearing as an ..."

7. Psychology: General Introduction by Charles Hubbard Judd (1907)
"C. Sensations of Taste and smell Sensations of taste and smell may be considered together. Indeed, in the primitive forms of animal life, taste and smell ..."

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