SCENT • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Scent

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/sɛnt/ Listen

noun

Scent n.

That which, issuing from a body, affects the olfactory organs of animals; odor; smell; as, the scent of an orange, or of a rose; the scent of musk. "With lavish hand diffuses scents ambrosial."

Specifically, the odor left by an animal on the ground in passing over it; as, dogs find or lose the scent; hence, course of pursuit; track of discovery. "He gained the observations of innumerable ages, and traveled upon the same scent into Ethiopia."

The power of smelling; the sense of smell; as, a hound of nice scent; to divert the scent.

verb

Scent v. t. (past & past part. scented; pres. part. scenting)

To perceive by the olfactory organs; to smell; as, to scent game, as a hound does. "Methinks I scent the morning air."

To imbue or fill with odor; to perfume. "Balm from a silver box distilled around, Shall all bedew the roots, and scent the sacred ground."

Scent v. i.

To have a smell. (Obs.) "Thunderbolts... do scent strongly of brimstone."

To hunt animals by means of the sense of smell.

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Etymology of 'Scent'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Scent" Quotes from Famous Books

... preparing itself for a new creation of an entirely different order. As successor to the leaf, the flower appears to us time and again as a miracle. Nothing in the lower realm of the plant predicts the form, colour, scent and all the other properties of the new organ produced at this stage. The completed leaf, preceding the plant's withdrawal into the calyx, represents a triumph of structure over matter. Now, in the flower, matter is overcome to a still higher degree. It is as if the material ...

— Man or Matter • Ernst Lehrs

... fisher-boy. He could say no more, for the sight and scent of apples, jelly, roast fowl, home-made pastry, and other things was almost too ...

— The Coxswain's Bride - also, Jack Frost and Sons; and, A Double Rescue • R.M. Ballantyne

... the slightest infection of the protected and pure air to take place, or, from some putrescent source, inoculate your sterilized fluid with the minutest atom, and shortly turbidity, offensive scent, and ...

— Scientific American Supplement, No. 643, April 28, 1888 • Various

... come to the open door of a great, weather-beaten building, from whose open windows an aromatic breath wandered out into the summer air. As they crossed the worn threshold, Athalia stopped and caught her breath in the overpowering scent of drying herbs; then they followed Brother Nathan up a shaky flight of steps to the loft. Here some elderly women, sitting on low benches, were sorting over great piles of herbs in silence—the silence, ...

— The Way to Peace • Margaret Deland

... hears quickly, and his scent is very keen too. When the hunters are after him, how fleet he is! Sometimes he leaps into the water and swims. Then the dogs lose the scent and cannot follow him. The male deer ...

— Our Young Folks at Home and Abroad • Various

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