scent

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A distinctive smell.

   “the scent of flowers / of a skunk”

   “to give off / release / exude a scent”

   “to breathe in / inhale a scent”

   “hunger and thirst at once, / Powerful perswaders, quick’nd at the scent / Of that alluring fruit,”

   “The scent of these arm-pits is aroma finer than prayer,”

2. (countable, uncountable)A smell left by an animal that may be used for tracing.

   “The dogs picked up / caught the scent but then quickly lost it.”

   “He […] twice to-day pick’d out the dullest scent; / Trust me, I take him for the better dog.”

   “But see how the dogs puzzle about there. Come, Mr Frank, the scent’s cold;”

3. (countable, uncountable)The sense of smell.

   “I believe the bloodhound has the best scent of all dogs.”

   “His houndes espyde him where he was, and Blacksoote first of all / And Stalker speciall good of sent began aloud to call.”

   “No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of the spring:”

   “[I]nnumerable flowers, sweet to the scent and the eyes”

   “Keen is the scent of the slaveholder; like the fangs of the rattlesnake, his malice retains its poison long; and, although it is now nearly seventeen years since I made my escape, it is well to be careful, in dealing with the circumstances relating to it.”

4. (uncountable)A substance (usually liquid) created to provide a pleasant smell.

   “a scent shop”

   “a scent bazaar”

   “He was drowned in scent—fairly stunk with it, Captain Marlow.”

   “He receives deputations from the bazaar, and they all chew betel nut and smear one another’s hands with scent.”

   “He took a clean handkerchief (a lovely one such as you couldn’t buy today) out of the little left-hand drawer and put a few drops of scent on it.”

5. (countable, figuratively, uncountable)Any trail or trace that can be followed to find something or someone, such as the paper left behind in a paperchase.

   “The minister's off-hand remark put journalists on the scent of a cover-up.”

   “The tip put the detectives on a false scent / the wrong scent.”

   “to pick up a scent / get scent of something”

   “to throw / put someone off the scent”

   “Mrs. Wilkins having […] by Accident, gotten a true Scent of the above Story […] failed not to satisfy herself thoroughly of all the Particulars,”

6. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)Sense, perception.

   “A fit false dreame, that can delude the sleepers sent.”

verb

1. (transitive)To detect the scent of; to discern by the sense of smell.

   “The hounds scented the fox in the woods.”

   “methinks I scent the morning air.”

   “if she had scented danger in the air, as a dog scents the presence of some creature unseen, her alarm could not have displayed itself more suddenly”

   “Why, Maggie could scent a fire before it started, almost.”

2. (ambitransitive)To inhale in order to detect the scent of (something).

   “I paused to scent the breeze as I entered the valley.”

   “One night he sprang from sleep with a start, eager-eyed, nostrils quivering and scenting,”

3. (figuratively, transitive)To have a suspicion of; to detect the possibility of (something).

   “I scented trouble when I saw them running down the hill towards me.”

   “Cope seemed to scent a challenge and accepted it.”

   “A mysterious scene to me then—yet I scented that there was something momentous about it, though I could not tell what.”

4. (transitive)To impart an odour to, to cause to have a particular smell.

   “Scent the air with burning sage before you begin your meditation.”

   “Balm, from a Silver box distill’d around, / Shall all bedew the roots and scent the sacred ground;”

   “[Vanilla pods] have a fat rich aromatic taste, and most agreeable flavour; on which account they are used to scent the chocolate.”

   “[…] the air […] was scented, not disagreeably, by the chips and shavings of the long-shore boat-builders, and mast oar and block makers.”

   “You adorn yourself and scent yourself and sit with him in a comfortable way—”

5. (intransitive, obsolete)To have a smell; (figuratively) to give an impression (of something).

   “Thunderbolts & lightnings […] do sent strongly of brimstone:”

   “1647, John Fletcher and Philip Massinger, The False One, Act III, Scene 2, in Fifty Comedies and Tragedies, London: John Martyn et al., p. 325, I smell him now: fie, how the Knave perfumes him, / How strong he scents of Traitor?”

   “though praying for a wounded Conscience may seemingly scent of pretended humility, it doth really and rankly savour of pride,”

6. To hunt animals by means of the sense of smell.