Smell vs Foresmell - What's the difference?

In lang=en terms the difference between smell and foresmell

is that smell is to have a particular smell, whether good or bad; if descriptive, followed by "like" or "of" while foresmell is to smell in advance.

As nouns the difference between smell and foresmell

is that smell is a sensation, pleasant or unpleasant, detected by inhaling air (or, the case of water-breathing animals, water) carrying airborne molecules of a substance while foresmell is a smell which precedes or comes before something.

As verbs the difference between smell and foresmell

is that smell is to sense a smell or smells while foresmell is to smell in advance.

smell

English

Noun

A sensation, pleasant or unpleasant, detected by inhaling air (or, the case of water-breathing animals, water) carrying airborne molecules of a substance.

I love the smell of fresh bread.

* 1908 , (Kenneth Grahame), (The Wind in the Willows)

The penetrating smell' of cabbage reached the nose of Toad as he lay prostrate in his misery on the floor, and gave him the idea for a moment that perhaps life was not such a blank and desperate thing as he had imagined. But still he wailed, and kicked with his legs, and refused to be comforted. So the wise girl retired for the time, but, of course, a good deal of the ' smell of hot cabbage remained behind, as it will do, and Toad, between his sobs, sniffed and reflected, and gradually began to think new and inspiring thoughts: of chivalry, and poetry...

(physiology) The sense that detects odours.

Usage notes

* Adjectives often applied to "smell": sweet, good, nice, great, pleasant, fresh, fragrant, bad, foul, unpleasant, horrible, terrible, awful, nasty, disgusting, funny, strange, odd, sour, funky, metallic, stinky, rotten, rancid, putrid, rank, fishy.

Synonyms

* (sensation) ** (pleasant) aroma, fragrance, odor/odour, scent ** (unpleasant) odor/odour, niff (informal), pong (informal), reek, stench, stink, whiff (informal) * (sense) olfaction (in technical use), sense of smell * See also

Verb

To sense a smell or smells.

To have a particular smell, whether good or bad; if descriptive, followed by "like" or "of".

* , chapter=8

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=Philander went into the next room

(without a modifier) To smell bad; to stink.

(figurative) To have a particular tincture or smack of any quality; to savour.

* (John Milton)

Praises in an enemy are superfluous, or smell of craft.

(obsolete) To exercise sagacity.

(Shakespeare)

To detect or perceive; often with out .

* Shakespeare

I smell a device.

(obsolete) To give heed to.

* Latimer

From that time forward I began to smell the Word of God, and forsook the school doctors.

Usage notes

The sense "to smell bad, stink" is considered by some to be an incorrect substitute for stink.

Synonyms

* (sense a smell or smells) detect, sense * (have the smell of) (all followed by'' like''' ''or'' ' of ) ** (pleasant) ** (unpleasant) pong (informal), reek, stink, whiff (informal)

Derived terms

* code smells * sense of smell (see olfaction) * smell a rat * smell blood * smell like a rose * smell of an oily rag * smell test * smell the barn * smelly * wake up and smell the coffee

References

* *

Anagrams

* English irregular verbs 1000 English basic words

foresmell

English

Noun

(en noun)

A smell which precedes or comes before something.

*1972 , Vladimir Nabokov, Transparent Things , McGraw-Hill 1972, p. 10:

*:His father, a man of sixty, shorter than Hugh and also pudgier, had aged unappetizingly during his recent widowhood; his things let off a characteristic foresmell , faint but unmistakable, and he grunted and sighed in his sleep, dreaming of large unwieldy blocks of blackness [...].

Verb

To smell in advance.

*1855 , Fred Folio, Lucy Boston , Shepard, Clark & Co., p. 291:

*:"I do not foresmell any immediate'' harm to thee from the harness, but as you might ''run a risk in using it, perhaps it will be safest for me to take it," said the Medium.