If you smell something, you put your nose near it and breathe in, so that you can discover its smell. I took a fresh rose out of the vase on our table, and smelled it. [VERB noun]
smell, scent, odor, aroma mean the quality that makes a thing perceptible to the olfactory sense. smell implies solely the sensation without suggestion of quality or character. scent applies to the characteristic smell given off by a substance, an animal, or a plant.
The importance and sensitivity of smell varies among different organisms; most mammals have a good sense of smell, whereas most birds do not, except the tubenoses (e.g., petrels and albatrosses), certain species of new world vultures, and the kiwis.
Smell is one of the five senses. Dogs have a very good sense of smell. I woke up to the smell of bacon and eggs.
Overview of smell, which is one of the five special senses involving the transduction of chemical stimuli into electrical signals. The sense of smell, known as olfaction, is a specialized sensory function allowing for the detection and interpretation of odors.
olfactory system, the bodily structures that serve the sense of smell. The system consists of the nose and the nasal cavities, which in their upper parts support the olfactory mucous membrane for the perception of smell and in their lower parts act as respiratory passages.
smell (third-person singular simple present smells, present participle smelling, simple past and past participle smelled or smelt) (transitive) To sense a smell or smells.
Learn how smells travel from the source to your brain and the reasons behind changes in your sense of smell in this short video from the National Institutes of Health at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD).