SMELT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does smelt mean? 

• SMELT (noun)
  The noun SMELT has 2 senses:

1. small cold-water silvery fish; migrate between salt and fresh water

2. small trout-like silvery marine or freshwater food fishes of cold northern waters

  Familiarity information: SMELT used as a noun is rare.

• SMELT (verb)
  The verb SMELT has 1 sense:

1. extract (metals) by heating

  Familiarity information: SMELT used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SMELT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Small cold-water silvery fish; migrate between salt and fresh water

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

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

fish (the flesh of fish used as food)

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

American smelt; rainbow smelt (common smelt of eastern North America and Alaska)

European smelt; sparling (common smelt of Europe)

Holonyms ("smelt" is a part of...):

smelt (small trout-like silvery marine or freshwater food fishes of cold northern waters)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Small trout-like silvery marine or freshwater food fishes of cold northern waters

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

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

malacopterygian; soft-finned fish (any fish of the superorder Malacopterygii)

Meronyms (parts of "smelt"):

smelt (small cold-water silvery fish; migrate between salt and fresh water)

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

Osmerus mordax; rainbow smelt (important marine and landlocked food fish of eastern North America and Alaska)

European smelt; Osmerus eperlanus; sparling (the common smelt of Europe)

capelan; capelin; caplin (very small northern fish; forage for sea birds and marine mammals and other fishes)

Holonyms ("smelt" is a member of...):

family Osmeridae; Osmeridae (smelts)

• SMELT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they smelt    ... he / she / it smelts   
Past simple: smelted   
Past participle: smelted   
-ing form: smelting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Extract (metals) by heating

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Hypernyms (to "smelt" is one way to...):

create; make; produce (create or manufacture a man-made product)

"Smelt" entails doing...:

heat; heat up (make hot or hotter)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

smelter (an industrial plant for smelting)

 Context examples 

Then, at the same instant, he saw and smelt.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

He was back in a moment, and I smelt a strong reek of brandy as he passed me.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But as the roast meat smelt so good, Gretel thought: “Something might be wrong, it ought to be tasted!”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The air too smelt more freshly than down beside the marsh.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Vast sections of it have been cleared, for this is the seat of the first iron-works of the country, and the trees have been felled to smelt the ore.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It smelt of laudanum, and looking on the sideboard, I found that the bottle which mother's doctor uses for her—oh! did use—was empty.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

A waiter showed me into the coffee-room; and a chambermaid introduced me to my small bedchamber, which smelt like a hackney-coach, and was shut up like a family vault.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

This done, I lingered yet a little longer: the flowers smelt so sweet as the dew fell; it was such a pleasant evening, so serene, so warm; the still glowing west promised so fairly another fine day on the morrow; the moon rose with such majesty in the grave east. I was noting these things and enjoying them as a child might, when it entered my mind as it had never done before:—How sad to be lying now on a sick bed, and to be in danger of dying!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

A strange multiplicity of sensations seized me, and I saw, felt, heard, and smelt at the same time; and it was, indeed, a long time before I learned to distinguish between the operations of my various senses.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The sorrel nag offered me a root, which he held (after their manner, as we shall describe in its proper place) between his hoof and pastern; I took it in my hand, and, having smelt it, returned it to him again as civilly as I could.

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