SMELLING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does smelling mean? 

• SMELLING (noun)
  The noun SMELLING has 1 sense:

1. the act of perceiving the odor of something

  Familiarity information: SMELLING used as a noun is very rare.

• SMELLING (adjective)
  The adjective SMELLING has 1 sense:

1. (used with 'of' or 'with') noticeably odorous

  Familiarity information: SMELLING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SMELLING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of perceiving the odor of something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

smell; smelling

Hypernyms ("smelling" is a kind of...):

perception; sensing (becoming aware of something via the senses)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "smelling"):

sniff; snuff (sensing an odor by inhaling through the nose)

Derivation:

smell (inhale the odor of; perceive by the olfactory sense)

• SMELLING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(used with 'of' or 'with') noticeably odorous

Synonyms:

redolent; smelling

Context example:

air redolent with the fumes of beer and whiskey

Similar:

odorous (having odor or a characteristic odor)

 Context examples 

A question about whether an individual has or had trouble smelling.

(Have Trouble Smelling, NCI Thesaurus)

At one we dined, Mr. Mell and I, at the upper end of a long bare dining-room, full of deal tables, and smelling of fat.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Pleasant smelling compound found in many plants and released on wilting.

(Coumarin, NCI Thesaurus)

"It was impossible to go anywhere without smelling death."

(Born during a drought: Bad news for baboons, NSF)

It was smelling out my trail.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"Is it meant to use as you use the string of good-smelling wooden beads hanging over your glass?" asked Amy.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

They identified 138 compounds that were pleasant smelling, inexpensive, and considered safe for human use.

(How mosquitoes detect people, NIH)

So they lay down among the sweet smelling yellow flowers and slept soundly until morning—all but the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

There was a man born blind, who had several apprentices in his own condition: their employment was to mix colours for painters, which their master taught them to distinguish by feeling and smelling.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Skin symptoms may include a blue or black color, pain, numbness, and sores that produce a foul-smelling discharge.

(Gangrene, NIH)