scent

English

Alternative forms

• sent (obsolete)

Etymology

From c.1400, from Middle English sent (noun) and senten (verb), from Old French sentir (“to feel, perceive, smell”), from Old French sentire "to feel, perceive, sense", from Latin sentīre, present active infinitive of sentiō. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sent- (“to feel”), and thus related to Dutch zin (“sense, meaning”), German Sinn (“sense”), Low German Sinn (“sense”), Luxembourgish Sënn (“sense, perception”), Saterland Frisian Sin (“sense”), West Frisian sin (“sense”). The -c- appeared in the 17th century, possibly by influence of ascent, descent, etc., or by influence of science.

Pronunciation

• enPR: sĕnt, IPA^(key): /sɛnt/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɛnt
• Homophones: cent, sent

Noun

scent (countable and uncountable, plural scents)

1. A distinctive smell.

   Synonyms: aroma, bouquet, fragrance, nosegay, odor, perfume, redolence, smell

   the scent of flowers / of a skunk

   to give off / release / exude a scent

   to breathe in / inhale a scent

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC, lines 586-588:

     hunger and thirst at once, / Powerful perswaders, quick’nd at the scent / Of that alluring fruit,

   • 1892, Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”, in Leaves of Grass , Philadelphia, Pa.: David McKay, publisher, , →OCLC, page 49:

     The scent of these arm-pits is aroma finer than prayer,

   • 1973, Mary Stewart, The Hollow Hills‎, New York: William Morrow, Book 3, p. 357:

     Behind me the forest stood wrapped in mist, its scents still sleeping.

   • 2014, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, chapter 32, in Dust‎, London: Granta Books, page 289:

     The air is thick with the unexpected scent of rain.

2. A smell left by an animal that may be used for tracing.

   The dogs picked up / caught the scent but then quickly lost it.

   • c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     He […] twice to-day pick’d out the dullest scent; / Trust me, I take him for the better dog.

   • 1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], Rob Roy. , volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. ; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 151:

     But see how the dogs puzzle about there. Come, Mr Frank, the scent’s cold;

3. The sense of smell.

   Synonym: olfaction

   I believe the bloodhound has the best scent of all dogs.

   • 1567, Ovid, “The Third Booke”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis, , London: Willyam Seres , →OCLC, folio 33, recto:

     His houndes espyde him where he was, and Blacksoote first of all / And Stalker speciall good of sent began aloud to call.

   • 1759, Samuel Johnson, chapter 29, in The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia‎, Philadelphia: Robert Bell, published 1768, page 113:

     No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of the spring:

   • 1818, [Mary Shelley], chapter V, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. , volume II, London: for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, →OCLC, page 76:

     [I]nnumerable flowers, sweet to the scent and the eyes

   • 1855, Frederick Douglass, chapter 21, in My Bondage and My Freedom. , New York, Auburn, N.Y.: Miller, Orton & Mulligan , →OCLC, part I (Life as a Slave), page 322:

     Keen is the scent of the slaveholder; like the fangs of the rattlesnake, his malice retains its poison long; and, although it is now nearly seventeen years since I made my escape, it is well to be careful, in dealing with the circumstances relating to it.

4. (chiefly uncountable) A substance (usually liquid) created to provide a pleasant smell.

   Synonyms: aftershave, cologne, eau de toilette, perfume, toilet water

   a scent shop

   a scent bazaar

   • 1899 September – 1900 July, Joseph Conrad, chapter 6, in Lord Jim: A Tale, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1900, →OCLC, page 66:

     He was drowned in scent—fairly stunk with it, Captain Marlow.

   • 1924 June 4, E[dward] M[organ] Forster, chapter 22, in A Passage to India, London: Edward Arnold & Co., →OCLC, part II (Caves), page 197:

     He receives deputations from the bazaar, and they all chew betel nut and smear one another’s hands with scent.

   • 1955, C. S. Lewis, chapter 6, in The Magician’s Nephew, New York: HarperCollins, published 2010:

     He took a clean handkerchief (a lovely one such as you couldn’t buy today) out of the little left-hand drawer and put a few drops of scent on it.

   • 2014, Damon Galgut, chapter 6, in Arctic Summer, McClelland & Stewart, page 285:

     He went tripping away under a canvas umbrella, trailing the smell of cheap scent.

5. (figuratively) Any 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

   to throw / put someone off the scent ― distract them from following the trail of evidence

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter V, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume I, London: A Millar, , →OCLC, book II, page 71:

     Mrs. Wilkins having […] by Accident, gotten a true Scent of the above Story […] failed not to satisfy herself thoroughly of all the Particulars,

   • 1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, chapter 13, in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, 1st American edition, Boston, Mass.: Peter Edes for Thomas and Andrews, , published 1792, →OCLC:

     Before marriage it is their business to please men; and after, with a few exceptions, they follow the same scent with all the persevering pertinacity of instinct.

   • 1926, Nevil Shute, chapter 3, in Marazan‎, London: Cassell:

     Gullivant had to be firmly identified with Compton, the convict, in such a way as to bring the police hot on the scent.

6. (obsolete) Sense, perception.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 15:

     A fit false dreame, that can delude the sleepers sent.

Usage notes

• Although historically the term was applied indifferently to odours of any kind, it is now more often used to refer to pleasant ones (like aroma and fragrance), while odour and smell are more often used for unpleasant ones.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• olfactory

Verb

scent (third-person singular simple present scents, present participle scenting, simple past and past participle scented)

1. (transitive) To detect the scent of; to discern by the sense of smell.

   Synonym: smell

   The hounds scented the fox in the woods.

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     methinks I scent the morning air.

   • 1860, Wilkie Collins, “The Woman in White”, in London‎, volume 3, Sampson Low, Son, & Co., page 334:

     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

   • 1988, Anne Tyler, Breathing Lessons‎, Penguin, Part 3, Chapter 2, p. 279:

     Why, Maggie could scent a fire before it started, almost.

2. (transitive, intransitive) To inhale in order to detect the scent of (something).

   Synonyms: sniff, smell

   • 1899, W. E. B. Du Bois, “A Negro Schoolmaster in the New South”, in The Atlantic Monthly‎, volume 83, page 103:

     I paused to scent the breeze as I entered the valley.

   • 1903, Jack London, chapter 7, in The Call of the Wild‎, New York: Macmillan, page 201:

     One night he sprang from sleep with a start, eager-eyed, nostrils quivering and scenting,

3. (transitive, figurative) To have a suspicion of; to detect the possibility of (something).

   Synonyms: detect, discern, perceive, sense

   I scented trouble when I saw them running down the hill towards me.

   • 1919, Henry Blake Fuller, chapter 11, in Bertram Cope’s Year‎, Chicago: R.F. Seymour, page 105:

     Cope seemed to scent a challenge and accepted it.

   • 1978, Lawrence Durrell, chapter 1, in Livia‎, London: Faber and Faber, page 48:

     A mysterious scene to me then—yet I scented that there was something momentous about it, though I could not tell what.

4. (transitive) To impart an odour to, to cause to have a particular smell.

   Synonyms: perfume, odorize

   Scent the air with burning sage before you begin your meditation.

   • 1685, John Dryden, “The Epithalamium of Helen and Menelaus”, in Sylvæ, or, The Second Part of Poetical Miscellanies‎, London: Jacob Tonson, page 105:

     Balm, from a Silver box distill’d around, / Shall all bedew the roots and scent the sacred ground;

   • 1796, John Gabriel Stedman, chapter 25, in Narrative of a Five Years’ Expedition‎, volume 2, London: J. Johnson & J. Edwards, page 235:

     [Vanilla pods] have a fat rich aromatic taste, and most agreeable flavour; on which account they are used to scent the chocolate.

   • 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter VII, in Great Expectations , volume III, London: Chapman and Hall, , published October 1861, →OCLC, page 103:

     […] the air […] was scented, not disagreeably, by the chips and shavings of the long-shore boat-builders, and mast oar and block makers.

   • 1999, Ahdaf Soueif, chapter 18, in The Map of Love‎, London: Bloomsbury, page 300:

     You adorn yourself and scent yourself and sit with him in a comfortable way—

5. (intransitive, obsolete) To have a smell; (figuratively) to give an impression (of something).

   Synonym: smell

   • 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “ 15.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. , 2nd tome, London: Adam Islip, published 1635, →OCLC, page 557:

     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 strong he scents of Traitor?

   • 1647, Thomas Fuller, The Cause and Cure of a Wounded Conscience‎, London: John Williams, Dialogue 21, page 154:

     though praying for a wounded Conscience may seemingly scent of pretended humility, it doth really and rankly savour of pride,

6. To hunt animals by means of the sense of smell.

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

• cents