scent
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From Middle English sent (noun) and senten (verb), from Old French sentir (“to feel, perceive, smell, sense”), from Latin sentiō, 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.
Inflected forms:
form: scents
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: sent
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: scents
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: scenting
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: scented
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: scented
pos: verb
tags: past
form: sent
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: A distinctive smell.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: 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,
Behind me the forest stood wrapped in mist, its scents still sleeping.
The air is thick with the unexpected scent of rain.
gloss: A smell left by an animal that may be used for tracing.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: 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;
gloss: The sense of smell.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: 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.
gloss: A substance (usually liquid) created to provide a pleasant smell.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: 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.
He went tripping away under a canvas umbrella, trailing the smell of cheap scent.
gloss: Any trail or trace that can be followed to find something or someone, such as the paper left behind in a paperchase.
pos: noun
tags: countable
figuratively
uncountable
examples: 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,
Before marriage it is their business to please men; and after, with a few exceptions, they follow the same scent with all the persevering pertinacity of instinct.
Gullivant had to be firmly identified with Compton, the convict, in such a way as to bring the police hot on the scent.
gloss: Sense, perception.
pos: noun
tags: countable
obsolete
uncountable
examples: A fit false dreame, that can delude the sleepers sent.
gloss: To detect the scent of; to discern by the sense of smell.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To inhale in order to detect the scent of (something).
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
examples: 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,
gloss: To have a suspicion of; to detect the possibility of (something).
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To impart an odour to, to cause to have a particular smell.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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—
gloss: To have a smell; (figuratively) to give an impression (of something).
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
obsolete
examples: 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,
gloss: To hunt animals by means of the sense of smell.
pos: verb
Related words: olfactory
Derived words: afterscent
false scent
hay-scented fern
information scent
scent-bottle
scented
scentful
scent gland
scent hound
scentless
scentmaker
scent mark
scent pad
scentscape
underscent
forescent
overscent
outscent
scentable
scenter
scent out
Translations:
lang: Afrikaans
word: reuk
lang: Arabic
word: رَائِحَة
roman: rāʔiḥa
lang: Arabic
word: رَوَائِح
roman: rawāʔiḥ
lang: Arabic
word: ريحة
roman: rīḥa
lang: Armenian
word: բույր
roman: buyr
lang: Armenian
word: բուրմունք
roman: burmunkʻ
lang: Bashkir
word: еҫ
roman: yeś
lang: Belarusian
word: за́пах
roman: zápax
lang: Belarusian
word: пах
roman: pax
lang: Bengali
word: গন্ধ
roman: gondho
lang: Bulgarian
word: мирис
roman: miris
lang: Bulgarian
word: миризма
roman: mirizma
lang: Catalan
word: esència
lang: Catalan
word: olor
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 氣味 /气味
roman: qìwèi
lang: Czech
word: vůně
lang: Dutch
word: geur
lang: Dutch
word: reuk
lang: Egyptian
word: s-T:Aa2
roman: sṯ
lang: Finnish
word: tuoksu
lang: Finnish
word: haju
lang: French
word: odeur
lang: Galician
word: recendo
lang: Galician
word: cheirume
lang: Galician
word: cheiro
lang: German
word: Geruch
lang: German
word: Duft
lang: Gothic
word: 𐌳𐌰𐌿𐌽𐍃
roman: dauns
lang: Greek
word: οσμή
roman: osmí
lang: Greek
word: μυρωδιά
roman: myrodiá
lang: Ancient Greek
word: ὀσμή
roman: osmḗ
lang: Hebrew
word: ריח
roman: réakh
lang: Hindi
word: गंध
roman: gandh
lang: Hungarian
word: illat
lang: Irish
word: boladh
lang: Italian
word: odore
lang: Japanese
word: 香り
roman: kaori
lang: Japanese
word: 匂い
roman: nioi
lang: Japanese
word: 臭い
roman: nioi
lang: Khmer
word: ក្លិន
roman: klən
lang: Korean
word: 냄새
roman: naemsae
lang: Latin
word: odor
lang: Malay
word: bau
lang: Māori
word: kakara
lang: Māori
word: tīare
lang: Maranao
word: bao
lang: Norwegian
word: duft
lang: Oromo
word: foolii
lang: Persian
word: عطر
roman: 'atr
lang: Plautdietsch
word: Jeroch
lang: Polish
word: zapach
lang: Polish
word: woń
lang: Portuguese
word: cheiro
lang: Portuguese
word: aroma
lang: Portuguese
word: odor
lang: Romanian
word: miros
lang: Russian
word: за́пах
roman: zápax
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: мирис
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: miris
lang: Slovak
word: vôňa
lang: Slovene
word: vonj
lang: Spanish
word: olor
lang: Spanish
word: esencia
lang: Spanish
word: fragancia
lang: Spanish
word: aroma
lang: Swahili
word: harufu
lang: Swedish
word: doft
lang: Tatar
word: ис
roman: is
lang: Thai
word: กลิ่น
roman: glìn
lang: Tocharian B
word: were
lang: Tok Pisin
word: smel
lang: Turkish
word: ıtır
lang: Ottoman Turkish
word: عطر
roman: ʼıtr, ʼıtır
lang: Ottoman Turkish
word: اید
roman: id
lang: Ukrainian
word: за́пах
roman: zápax
lang: Vietnamese
word: mùi
lang: Welsh
word: aroglau
lang: Welsh
word: persawr