smell
/smɛl/ verb B1- To sense a smell or smells. · I can smell fresh bread.· Smell the milk and tell me whether it's gone off.
- To detect or perceive; often with out.
- Followed by like or of if descriptive: to have a particular smell, whether good or bad. · The roses smell lovely.· Her feet smell of cheese.
- To smell of; to have a smell of
- To smell bad; to stink. · Ew, this restroom smells (loathsomely).
- To have a particular tincture or smack of any quality; to savour. · A report smells of calumny.
He/she/it smells · Past smelled · Past participle smelled · -ing form smelling
Verb forms
- Base form
- smell
- He/she/it
- smells
- Past
- smelled
- Past participle
- smelled
- -ing form
- smelling
Phrasal verbs and expressions
From the library
She and all the firemen smelled the burned flesh from inside it.
These green and sweetly smelling crops
“I read in a book once that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but I’ve never been able to believe it.
On the golden smell of broom
Other matches
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