Word.ws English Dictionary

smell of the lamp

smell of the lamp verb: to bear marks of great study and labor.

Verb

smell of the lamp (third-person singular simple present smells of the lamp, present participle smelling of the lamp, simple past and past participle smelled of the lamp or smelt of the lamp)

  1. (archaic, idiomatic) To bear marks of great study and labor.

Forms of smell of the lamp

third-person singular presentsmells of the lamp
present participlesmelling of the lamp
past participlesmelled of the lamp
pastsmelled of the lamp
past participlesmelt of the lamp
pastsmelt of the lamp

Origin of smell of the lamp

Suggesting work done throughout the night during the days of oil lamps.

Questions about smell of the lamp

What does smell of the lamp mean?
Smell of the lamp means to bear marks of great study and labor.
What part of speech is smell of the lamp?
Smell of the lamp is a verb.
What is the past tense of smell of the lamp?
The past tense of smell of the lamp is smelled of the lamp.

Words near smell of the lamp in the dictionary

  1. smell like a tart's bedroom
  2. smell like a tart's boudoir
  3. smell like a tart's handbag
  4. smell like a tart's handkerchief
  5. smell of an oily rag
  6. smell of the lamp
  7. smell of the shop
  8. smell one's own farts
  9. smell oneself
  10. smell out
  11. smell test

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: smell of the lamp (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-smell of the lamp.ogg.

Cite this entry: “smell of the lamp.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/smell_of_the_lamp. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.