smell

smell is on the Basic English 850 List.

smash - smell - smile

Pronunciation

• enPR: smĕl, IPA ^(key): /smɛl/
• SAMPA: /smEl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Verb

Plain form smell

Third-person singular smells

Past tense smelled

Past participle smelled

Present participle smelling

Plain form smell

Third-person singular smells

Past tense smelt

Past participle smelt

Present participle smelling

1. If you smell something, you use the nose to sense it.

   She put her nose near the flowers and breathed in to smell them.

   She smelled the waste and felt sick.

2. If something smells, it gently put a substance that people can smell into the air.

   The flowers smell very good.

   The waste smells bad.

Noun

Singular smell

Plural smells

1. The way a thing smells; the substance in the air that people can smell.

   The smell of the flowers is very good.