Word.ws English Dictionary

smelling out

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

Meaning of smell out

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.

Questions about smelling out

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

Words near smelling out in the dictionary

  1. smelling like a tart's boudoir
  2. smelling like a tart's handbag
  3. smelling like a tart's handkerchief
  4. smelling of the lamp
  5. smelling of the shop
  6. smelling out
  7. smelling salt
  8. smelling salts
  9. smelling the barn
  10. smelling the coffee
  11. smelling up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: smelling out (page history and authors); 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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Cite this entry: “smelling out.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/smelling_out. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.