smell

smell is part of the Basic English 850.

Pronunciation

• enPR: smĕl
• IPA: /smɛl/
• SAMPA: /smEl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Verb

Plain form smell

Third-person singular smells

Past tense smelled

Past participle smelled

Present participle smelling

A nose that someone uses to smell things.

1. To use the nose to sense something.

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

   She smelled the waste and felt sick.

2. To 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.