smell

Etymology

From Middle English smellen, smillen, smyllen, smullen, from Old English *smyllan, *smiellan (“to smell, emit fumes”), from Proto-West Germanic *smallijan (“to glow, burn, smoulder”), from Proto-Indo-European *smel- (“to burn, smoke, smoulder; tar, pitch”). The noun is from Middle English smel, smil, smul (“smell, odour”). Related to Saterland Frisian smeele (“to smoulder”), Middle Dutch smōlen (“to burn, smoulder”) (whence Dutch smeulen (“to smoulder”)), Middle Low German smölen (“to be hazy, be dusty”) (whence Low German smölen (“smoulder”)), Low German smullen (“emit smoke”), West Flemish smoel (“stuffy, muggy, hazy”), Danish smul (“dust, powder”), Lithuanian smilkyti (“to incense, fumigate”), Lithuanian smilkti (“to smudge, smolder, fume, reek”), Lithuanian smalkinti (“to fume”), Middle Irish smál, smól, smúal (“fire, gleed, embers, ashes”), Russian смола́ (smolá, “resin, tar”). Compare smoulder, smother.

noun

1. A sensation, pleasant or unpleasant, detected by inhaling air (or, the case of water-breathing animals, water) carrying airborne molecules of a substance.
   I love the smell of fresh bread.
2. (physiology) The sense that detects odours.
3. A conclusion or intuition that a situation is wrong, more complex than it seems, or otherwise inappropriate.
   I’m just saying, this has a bad smell to it. February 8, 2018, Carl Schroers, chapter 8, in Wrestling with Time Lost, Lulu Press

verb

1. (transitive) To sense a smell or smells.
   I can smell fresh bread.
   Smell the milk and tell me whether it's gone off.
2. (intransitive, copulative) 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.
   The drunkard smelt like a brewery.
   Philander went into the next room…and came back with a salt mackerel…. Next he put the mackerel in a fry-pan, and the shanty began to smell like a Banks boat just in from a v'yage. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 8, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
3. (intransitive, without a modifier) To smell bad; to stink.
   Ew, this stuff smells.
4. (intransitive, figurative) To have a particular tincture or smack of any quality; to savour.
   A report smells of calumny.
   Este's been losing sleep / Her husband's acting different and it smells like infidelity 2021, Taylor Swift (lyrics and music), “No Body, No Crime”
5. To detect or perceive; often with out.
6. (obsolete) To give heed to.
7. (transitive) To smell of; to have a smell of