Word.ws English Dictionary

smell the roses

smell the roses is the alternative form of stop and smell the roses.

Meaning of stop and smell the roses

Verb

stop and smell the roses (third-person singular simple present stops and smells the roses, present participle stopping and smelling the roses, simple past and past participle stopped and smelled the roses or stopped and smelt the roses)

  1. (idiomatic) To relax; to take time out of one's busy schedule to enjoy or appreciate the beauty of life.

Forms of smell the roses

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

Questions about smell the roses

What is smell the roses the alternative form of?
Smell the roses is the alternative form of stop and smell the roses.

Words near smell the roses in the dictionary

  1. smell out
  2. smell test
  3. smell tests
  4. smell the barn
  5. smell the coffee
  6. smell the roses
  7. smell trap
  8. smell traps
  9. smell up
  10. smell what someone is stepping in
  11. smell ya later

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: smell the roses (page history and authors); stop and smell the roses (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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Cite this entry: “smell the roses.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/smell_the_roses. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.