/sɛnt/
OriginFrom Middle English sent (noun) and senten (verb), from Old French sentir (“to feel, perceive, smell, sense”), from Latin sentīre (“to feel, sense”). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sent- (“to feel”), and thus related to Saterland Frisian Sin (“sense”), West Frisian sin (“sense”), Dutch zin (“sense, meaning”), Low German Sinn (“sense”), Luxembourgish Sënn (“sense, perception”), German Sinn (“sense”). The -c- appeared in the 17th century, possibly by influence of ascent, descent, etc., or by influence of science.
- countable, uncountableA distinctive smell.
“the scent of flowers / of a skunk”
“to give off / release / exude a scent”
“to breathe in / inhale a scent”
- countable, uncountableA smell left by an animal that may be used for tracing.
“The dogs picked up / caught the scent but then quickly lost it.”
“He […] twice to-day pick’d out the dullest scent; / Trust me, I take him for the better dog.”
“But see how the dogs puzzle about there. Come, Mr Frank, the scent’s cold;”
- countable, uncountableThe sense of smell.
“I believe the bloodhound has the best scent of all dogs.”
“His houndes espyde him where he was, and Blacksoote first of all / And Stalker speciall good of sent began aloud to call.”
“No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of the spring:”
- uncountableA substance (usually liquid) created to provide a pleasant smell.
“a scent shop”
“a scent bazaar”
“He was drowned in scent—fairly stunk with it, Captain Marlow.”
- countable, figuratively, uncountableAny trail or trace that can be followed to find something or someone, such as the paper left behind in a paperchase.
“The minister's off-hand remark put journalists on the scent of a cover-up.”
“The tip put the detectives on a false scent / the wrong scent.”
“to pick up a scent / get scent of something” — discover one of a series of clues in the trail of evidence
- countable, obsolete, uncountableSense, perception.
“A fit false dreame, that can delude the sleepers sent.”
- transitiveTo detect the scent of; to discern by the sense of smell.
“The hounds scented the fox in the woods.”
“methinks I scent the morning air.”
“if she had scented danger in the air, as a dog scents the presence of some creature unseen, her alarm could not have displayed itself more suddenly”
- ambitransitiveTo inhale in order to detect the scent of (something).
“I paused to scent the breeze as I entered the valley.”
“One night he sprang from sleep with a start, eager-eyed, nostrils quivering and scenting,”
- figuratively, transitiveTo have a suspicion of; to detect the possibility of (something).
“I scented trouble when I saw them running down the hill towards me.”
“Cope seemed to scent a challenge and accepted it.”
“A mysterious scene to me then—yet I scented that there was something momentous about it, though I could not tell what.”
- transitiveTo impart an odour to, to cause to have a particular smell.
“Scent the air with burning sage before you begin your meditation.”
“Balm, from a Silver box distill’d around, / Shall all bedew the roots and scent the sacred ground;”
“[Vanilla pods] have a fat rich aromatic taste, and most agreeable flavour; on which account they are used to scent the chocolate.”
- intransitive, obsoleteTo have a smell; (figuratively) to give an impression (of something).
“Thunderbolts & lightnings […] do sent strongly of brimstone:”
“1647, John Fletcher and Philip Massinger, The False One, Act III, Scene 2, in Fifty Comedies and Tragedies, London: John Martyn et al., p. 325,
I smell him now: fie, how the Knave perfumes him, / How ”
“though praying for a wounded Conscience may seemingly scent of pretended humility, it doth really and rankly savour of pride,”
- To hunt animals by means of the sense of smell.
Formsscents(plural) · sent(alternative, obsolete) · scents(present, singular, third-person) · scenting(participle, present) · scented(participle, past) · scented(past)