scent
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: sĕnt
ipa: /sɛnt/
rhymes: -ɛnt
homophone: cent
homophone: sent
Forms: form: scents
form: scenting
form: scented
form: scented
form: sent
Etymology: From Middle English sent (noun) and senten (verb), from Old French sentir (“to feel, perceive, smell, sense”), from Latin sentīre (“to feel, sense”). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sent- (“to feel”), and thus related to Saterland Frisian Sin (“sense”), West Frisian sin (“sense”), Dutch zin (“sense, meaning”), Low German Sinn (“sense”), Luxembourgish Sënn (“sense, perception”), German Sinn (“sense”). The -c- appeared in the 17th century, possibly by influence of ascent, descent, etc., or by influence of science.
Senses: examples: text: The hounds scented the fox in the woods.
text: methinks I scent the morning air.
ref: c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:
text: 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
ref: 1860, Wilkie Collins, “The Woman in White”, in London, volume 3, Sampson Low, Son, & Co., page 334:
text: Why, Maggie could scent a fire before it started, almost.
ref: 1988, Anne Tyler, Breathing Lessons, Penguin, Part 3, Chapter 2, p. 279:
synonyms: smell
glosses: To detect the scent of; to discern by the sense of smell.
examples: text: I paused to scent the breeze as I entered the valley.
ref: 1899, W. E. B. Du Bois, “A Negro Schoolmaster in the New South”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume 83, page 103:
text: One night he sprang from sleep with a start, eager-eyed, nostrils quivering and scenting,
ref: 1903, Jack London, chapter 7, in The Call of the Wild, New York: Macmillan, page 201:
synonyms: sniff
smell
glosses: To inhale in order to detect the scent of (something).
examples: text: I scented trouble when I saw them running down the hill towards me.
text: Cope seemed to scent a challenge and accepted it.
ref: 1919, Henry Blake Fuller, chapter 11, in Bertram Cope’s Year, Chicago: R.F. Seymour, page 105:
text: A mysterious scene to me then—yet I scented that there was something momentous about it, though I could not tell what.
ref: 1978, Lawrence Durrell, chapter 1, in Livia, London: Faber and Faber, page 48:
synonyms: detect
discern
perceive
sense
glosses: To have a suspicion of; to detect the possibility of (something).
examples: text: Scent the air with burning sage before you begin your meditation.
text: Balm, from a Silver box distill’d around, / Shall all bedew the roots and scent the sacred ground;
ref: 1685, John Dryden, “The Epithalamium of Helen and Menelaus”, in Sylvæ, or, The Second Part of Poetical Miscellanies, London: Jacob Tonson, page 105:
text: [Vanilla pods] have a fat rich aromatic taste, and most agreeable flavour; on which account they are used to scent the chocolate.
ref: 1796, John Gabriel Stedman, chapter 25, in Narrative of a Five Years’ Expedition, volume 2, London: J. Johnson & J. Edwards, page 235:
text: […] the air […] was scented, not disagreeably, by the chips and shavings of the long-shore boat-builders, and mast oar and block makers.
ref: 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter VII, in Great Expectations […], volume III, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 103:
text: You adorn yourself and scent yourself and sit with him in a comfortable way—
ref: 1999, Ahdaf Soueif, chapter 18, in The Map of Love, London: Bloomsbury, page 300:
synonyms: perfume
odorize
glosses: To impart an odour to, to cause to have a particular smell.
examples: text: Thunderbolts & lightnings […] do sent strongly of brimstone:
ref: 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XXXV.] 15.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 2nd tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 557:
text: 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?
text: though praying for a wounded Conscience may seemingly scent of pretended humility, it doth really and rankly savour of pride,
ref: 1647, Thomas Fuller, The Cause and Cure of a Wounded Conscience, London: John Williams, Dialogue 21, page 154:
synonyms: smell
glosses: To have a smell; (figuratively) to give an impression (of something).
glosses: To hunt animals by means of the sense of smell.
Derived terms: forescent
outscent
overscent
scentable
scenter
scent out