To sense something using your nose, or to give off a particular odor. It can also mean to suspect that something is wrong.
“Smell” comes from Old English “smellan,” meaning “to perceive a scent” or “to search by scent.” It is related to other Germanic words about smelling and tracking. The basic meaning of sensing odors has remained stable.
“Smell” is both passive and active—you can smell smoke, and the smoke can smell bad. The same word also lets us talk about intuition: “I smell trouble.” That jump from nose to gut feeling shows how tightly our senses and judgments are wired together in language.
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