scent

Pluralscents

Formsscents, scenting, scented

1. 1
   a smellnouncountable or uncountable

   A smell that is characteristic of a particular thing.

   The candle released a faint scent of cedar as it burned.

   Hikers stopped to breathe in the sharp scents of pine and wet stone.

   Similarsmell, aroma, fragrance, odor, perfume

   Note

   Middle English wrote it sent, from French sentir, and the c is a later addition; Golding and Spenser still spell it without one. A scent need not be pleasant, as the scent of a skunk shows, but it names one recognizable smell rather than smell in general. Things give off, release or exude a scent, and people breathe it in.

2. 2
   perfumenoununcountable

   A substance, usually a liquid, made to give off a pleasant smell.

   He wore so much scent that the whole elevator smelled of it.

   The little shop sells handmade soap and bottles of scent blended on the premises.

   Similarperfume, cologne

   Note

   The substance is mostly uncountable: people wear scent, put on too much of it, or, like a man in Conrad's Lord Jim, are "drowned in scent." A bottle of scent is the countable unit, and the noun also serves as a modifier, as in a scent shop. Perfume is the closest synonym.

3. 3
   animal's trailnouncountable or uncountable

   The smell an animal leaves behind, which can be used to track it.

   The bloodhounds found the deer's scent near the creek and set off at a run.

   Heavy rain had washed away the scent, and the hounds circled in confusion.

   Similartrail, track

   Note

   The hunting sense supplies most of the word's idioms. Hounds pick up, catch or lose a scent, and an old, faint one is cold or dull: Scott's Rob Roy has "Come, Mr Frank, the scent's cold," and in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew a dog earns praise because it twice "pick'd out the dullest scent."

4. 4
   notice by smellverbtransitive

   To detect or recognize something by its smell.

   The wolves scented the herd long before they could see it.

   Our cat can scent tuna the moment the can is opened.

   Similarsmell

   Note

   Animals are the usual subject, hounds scenting a fox or wolves a herd, which makes the verb sound keener than plain smell. When people scent something, they borrow that alertness: the ghost in Hamlet says "methinks I scent the morning air," and Wilkie Collins likens a woman's sudden alarm to the way "a dog scents the presence of some creature unseen."

5. 5
   cluenounfigurativelycountable or uncountable

   A trace or trail that leads to someone or something when followed, such as the scattered paper in a paperchase.

   A leaked spreadsheet set auditors on the scent of the missing funds.

   The killer planted false evidence to throw detectives off the scent.

   Similartrail, track

   Note

   The hunt's language carries straight over to detective work: journalists are put on the scent of a cover-up, sent after a false or wrong scent by a misleading tip, or thrown off the scent by a planted clue. In the game of paperchase the scent was literal, a trail of scattered paper laid for the chasers to follow.

6. 6
   make fragrantverbtransitive

   To give something a particular smell.

   Some bakers scent the sugar with orange peel before using it.

   Freshly cut grass scented the evening air.

   Similarperfume

   Note

   Either a person or the source of the smell can do the scenting: a cook scents chocolate with vanilla, and in Dickens's Great Expectations the riverside air is scented by boat-builders' chips and shavings. The past participle does much of the work, both in the passive and before a noun, as in scented soap or scented air.

7. 7
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The sense of smell.

   Hunters prized the breed for its keen scent and tireless legs.

   Male moths can locate a mate by scent from surprising distances.

   Similarolfaction

   Note

   Said of animals, this sense is still current: a bloodhound has a famous scent, and a breed can be prized for a keen one. Older literary English gave it to people too, so Samuel Johnson's Rasselas speaks of "delighting his scent with the flowers of the spring," and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein of flowers "sweet to the scent and the eyes." For human noses, smell now does that work.

8. 8
   verbfigurativelytransitive

   To suspect something, or sense that it may be present or possible.

   The challenger scented victory as his opponent began to tire.

   Investors who scent a bargain tend to move quickly.

   Similarsense, detect, perceive, discern

   Note

   What gets scented is usually something about to happen and worth reacting to: trouble, a challenge, victory, a bargain. That gives the verb an eagerness suspect lacks; to scent victory is to smell it coming and press on. Lawrence Durrell's Livia stretches it to a whole clause: "I scented that there was something momentous about it."

9. 9
   sniffverbtransitive or intransitive

   To breathe in through the nose so as to catch the smell of something.

   The doe lifted her head to scent the wind before stepping into the clearing.

   Nose raised and quivering, the hound stood scenting at the edge of the woods.

   Similarsniff, smell

   Note

   The object is usually the air itself rather than anything in it: an animal or a wary walker scents the wind or the breeze, as W. E. B. Du Bois does on entering a valley. The verb can also stand alone, as in Jack London's The Call of the Wild, where a dog wakes with "nostrils quivering and scenting." Sniff is the everyday equivalent.

10. 10
    hunt animalsverb

    To hunt animals by following their smell.

    Similartrack

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