smelt
/smɛlt/
smelt noun: any small anadromous fish of the family Osmeridae, found in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and in lakes in North America and northern part of Europe. Also the simple past and past participle of smell.
Noun (1)
smelt (plural smelt or smelts)
- Any small anadromous fish of the family Osmeridae, found in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and in lakes in North America and northern part of Europe.
- A fool; a simpleton.
- These direct Men, they are no Men of fashion, Talk what you will, this is a very Smeltc. 1615–1616, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “Loves Pilgramage, a Comedy”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC...
Noun (2)
smelt (countable and uncountable, plural smelts)
- Production of metal, especially iron, from ore in a process that involves heating and chemical reduction of metal compounds into purified metal.
- Any of the various liquids or semi-molten solids produced and used during the course of such production.
- The green liquor, ie, [sic] the solution obtained on dissolving the smelt, contains an insoluble residue called dregs, which gives it a dark green appearance.1982, Raymond E. Kirk and Donald F. Othmer, Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, Wiley, →ISBN, page 405
- When the smelt was complete the crucible could be lifted out and the metal poured directly into the moulds, thus avoiding the need to break it up and remelt […]1996, Arthur J. Wilson, The Living Rock: The Story of Metals Since Earliest Time and Their Impact on Civilization
Verb
smelt (third-person singular simple present smelts, present participle smelting, simple past and past participle smelted)
Also used as
smelt is also the simple past and past participle of smell.
smelt meaning in Tagalog and Indonesian
smelt in Tagalog
- to fuse produce metal, especially iron, from ore in a process that involves heating and chemical reduction of metal compounds into purified metal
- tugnawin
smelt in Indonesian
- to fuse produce metal, especially iron, from ore in a process that involves heating and chemical reduction of metal compounds into purified metal
- melebur
Examples of smelt in a sentence
- During smelting, scum rises to the surface and is then removed by the smelter.
- The steel industry has long used blast furnaces to smelt iron.
- The milk smelt funny so I poured it away.
Forms of smelt
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | smelt |
| plural | smelts |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | smelts |
| present participle | smelting |
| past participle | smelted |
| past | smelted |
Origin of smelt
From Middle English smelt, from Old English smelt, from Proto-West Germanic *smelt, from Proto-Germanic *smeltaz.
From very early Middle English smelte; likely to derive from Old English, but not recorded.
From Middle Dutch smelten (“to melt”) or Middle Low German smelten (“to melt”), from Old Dutch *smeltan or Old Saxon smeltan, both from Proto-West Germanic *smeltan, from Proto-Germanic *smeltaną (“to melt”). Related to English melt and Old English meltan (“to melt”). Cognate to Dutch smelten, German schmelzen.
Words formed from smelt
Phrases with smelt
- smelt up
- smelt out
- smelt a rat
- smelt blood
- smelt the barn
- smelt like a rose
- smelt of the lamp
- smelt of the shop
- he who smelt it dealt it
- whoever smelt it dealt it
- you smelt it, you dealt it
- smelt like a tart's bedroom
12 more phrasesFewer phrases
- smelt like a tart's boudoir
- smelt like a tart's handbag
- stopped and smelt the roses
- woke up and smelt the ashes
- woke up and smelt the roses
- woke up and smelt the coffee
- woken up and smelt the ashes
- woken up and smelt the roses
- stopped and smelt the flowers
- woken up and smelt the coffee
- smelt like a tart's handkerchief
- smelt what someone was stepping in
Words that rhyme with smelt
Questions about smelt
- What does smelt mean?
- Smelt means any small anadromous fish of the family Osmeridae, found in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and in lakes in North America and northern part of Europe.
- What is smelt in Tagalog?
- Smelt in Tagalog is tugnawin. See Smelt meaning in Tagalog.
- What part of speech is smelt?
- Smelt can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce smelt?
- Smelt is pronounced /smɛlt/.
- What is the plural of smelt?
- The plural of smelt is smelt.
Words near smelt in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: smelt (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Pvanp7-smelt.wav.
Cite this entry: “smelt.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/smelt. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.