smell

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A sensation, pleasant or unpleasant, detected by inhaling air (or, the case of water-breathing animals, water) carrying airborne molecules of a substance.

   “I love the smell of fresh bread.”

2. (countable, uncountable)The sense that detects odours.
3. (countable, uncountable)A conclusion or intuition that a situation is wrong, more complex than it seems, or otherwise inappropriate.

   “I’m just saying, this has a bad smell to it.”

verb

1. (transitive)To sense a smell or smells.

   “I can smell fresh bread.”

   “Smell the milk and tell me whether it's gone off.”

2. (broadly, transitive)To sense a smell or smells.

   “I smell a device.”

3. (copulative, intransitive)Followed by like or of if descriptive: to have a particular smell, whether good or bad.

   “The roses smell lovely.”

   “Her feet smell of cheese.”

   “The drunkard smelt like a brewery.”

   “Philander went into the next room[…]and came back with a salt mackerel[…]. Next he put the mackerel in a fry-pan, and the shanty began to smell like a Banks boat just in from a v'yage.”

   “Este's been losing sleep / Her husband's acting different and it smells like infidelity”

4. (broadly, copulative, intransitive)Followed by like or of if descriptive: to have a particular smell, whether good or bad.

   “I do smell all horse-piss”

5. (copulative, intransitive)Followed by like or of if descriptive: to have a particular smell, whether good or bad.

   “Ew, this restroom smells (loathsomely).”

6. (copulative, figuratively, intransitive)Followed by like or of if descriptive: to have a particular smell, whether good or bad.

   “A report smells of calumny.”

   “Praises in an enemy are superfluous, or smell of craft.”

7. (obsolete)To give heed to.

   “So from that tyme forwarde I began to ſmell the word of god, and forſoke the ſchole doctors and ſuch foolries.”