Word.ws English Dictionary

smelling blood

smelling blood is the present participle and gerund of smell blood.

Meaning of smell blood

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, informal) To sense that one has an advantage over an adversary or rival.
    • Later he intended to continue his goading of Neil. He could smell blood now; if only he could get the man to fall apart in one of their clubs.1995, Jane Feather, Valentine, →ISBN, page 392

Questions about smelling blood

What is smelling blood the present participle and gerund of?
Smelling blood is the present participle and gerund of smell blood.

Words near smelling blood in the dictionary

  1. smellin'
  2. smelliness
  3. smelling
  4. smelling a rat
  5. smelling aid
  6. smelling blood
  7. smelling bottle
  8. smelling bottles
  9. smelling like a rose
  10. smelling like a tart's bedroom
  11. smelling like a tart's boudoir

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: smelling blood (page history and authors); smell blood (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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