redolent
adjUK /ˈɹɛd.ə.lənt/ · US /ˈɹɛd.ə.lənt/
Etymology From Middle English redolent (first attested in 1400), from Old French redolent, from Latin redolentem, present participle of redoleō (“to emit a scent”), from red- + oleō (“to smell”).
1
Fragrant or aromatic; having a sweet scent.
2
Having the smell of the article in question.
- Most of the articles were home-made; the bread, the yellow butter, as golden as the cups to which it has given name; the thickest cream, and a honeycomb redolent of the thyme which even then echoed with the hum of the bees.1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, pages 163–164:
- His breath is already redolent of whiskey.1861, Francis Colburn Adams, chapter 32, in An Outcast:
2 more examples
- Stephen, that is when the accosting figure came to close quarters, though he was not in an over sober state himself recognised Corley's breath redolent of rotten cornjuice.1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 16]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part III [Nostos], page 572:
- At that instant, Eragon's back ruptured in an explosion of agony so intense, he experienced it with all five senses: as a deafening, crashing waterfall of sound; a metallic taste that coated his tongue; an acrid, eye-watering stench in his nostrils, redolent of vinegar; pulsing colors; and, above all, the feeling that Durza had just laid open his back.2005, Christopher Paolini, “The Nature of Evil”, in Eldest, page 372:
3
Figuratively Suggestive or reminiscent.
- But, in the country, the green fields are so joyous, the pure air so fresh, the blue sky so clear; the fine old trees, redolent of earth's loveliest mythology, when the dryades peopled their green shadows;...1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 213:
- But forth from sweat-shops, tenement and prison Wailed minor protests, redolent with pain.1919, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, A vision:
2 more examples
- He said that the geometry of the dream-place he saw was abnormal, non-Euclidean, and loathsomely redolent of spheres and dimensions apart from ours.1928 February, H[oward] P[hillips] Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu”, in Farnsworth Wright, editor, Weird Tales: A Magazine of the Bizarre and Unusual, volume XI, number 2, Indianapolis, Ind.: Popular Fiction Publishing Company, →OCLC:
- The sums are so vast, the secrecy so shocking, that “chumocracy” doesn’t begin to capture what Britain has become – redolent as we are of banana republics, the Russian oligarchy and failed states.2021 February 22, Polly Toynbee, “The Covid contracts furore is no surprise – Britain has long been a chumocracy”, in The Guardian:
- Derived terms
- redolently
- Related terms
- redolence, redolency