foresmell

noun, verb — 2 senses

foresmell

noun

UK /ˈfɔːsmɛl/ · /fɔːˈsmɛl/

Etymology From fore- + smell.

1

A smell which precedes or comes before something.

  • 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 [...].1972, Vladimir Nabokov, Transparent Things, McGraw-Hill, published 1972, page 10:

foresmell

verb

Etymology From fore- + smell.

1

To smell in advance.

  • "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.1855, Fred Folio, Lucy Boston, Shepard, Clark & Co., page 291:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.