Word.ws English Dictionary

smelling the coffee

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

Meaning of smell the coffee

Verb

smell the coffee (third-person singular simple present smells the coffee, present participle smelling the coffee, simple past and past participle smelled the coffee)

  1. To wake up and smell the coffee.
    • The gay and lesbian movement has been white and middle class, and it is very meaningful for working class gay and gay people of color that our movement has finally smelled the coffee on this and it is taking up in a major way.1991 December 15, Jacob Smith Yang, quoting Sue Hyde, “Anti-ROTC Or Anti-Military?”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 22, page 6

Questions about smelling the coffee

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

Words near smelling the coffee in the dictionary

  1. smelling of the shop
  2. smelling out
  3. smelling salt
  4. smelling salts
  5. smelling the barn
  6. smelling the coffee
  7. smelling up
  8. smelling what someone is stepping in
  9. smellings
  10. smellproof
  11. smells

Source and license

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