Word.ws English Dictionary

smell out

smell out verb: to find or locate by smell.

Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To find or locate by smell.
  2. (figuratively, transitive) To find out by prying.
    • I can smell out dishonesty from a mile away.
    • for a Cut-purse; a good Nose is requisite also, to smell out
      worke for th' other Sences.c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...

Forms of smell out

third-person singular presentsmells out
present participlesmelling out
past participlesmelled out
pastsmelled out
past participlesmelt out
pastsmelt out

Words formed from smell out

Questions about smell out

What does smell out mean?
Smell out means to find or locate by smell.
What part of speech is smell out?
Smell out is a verb.
What is the past tense of smell out?
The past tense of smell out is smelled out.

Words near smell out in the dictionary

  1. smell of an oily rag
  2. smell of the lamp
  3. smell of the shop
  4. smell one's own farts
  5. smell oneself
  6. smell out
  7. smell test
  8. smell tests
  9. smell the barn
  10. smell the coffee
  11. smell the roses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: smell out (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.

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