Careful Words

smell (n.)

smell (v.)

I smell a rat.

Thomas Middleton (1580-1627): Blurt, Master-Constable. Act iii. Sc. 3.

Quoth Hudibras, "I smell a rat!

Ralpho, thou dost prevaricate."

Samuel Butler (1600-1680): Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 821.

A very ancient and fish-like smell.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Tempest. Act ii. Sc. 2.

What's in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 2.

Call it not vain: they do not err

Who say that when the poet dies

Mute Nature mourns her worshipper,

And celebrates his obsequies.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): Lay of the Last Minstrel. Canto v. Stanza 1.

Besides, they always smell of bread and butter.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Beppo. Stanza 39.

  The rankest compound of villanous smell that ever offended nostril.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iii. Sc. 5.

Only the actions of the just

Smell sweet and blossom in the dust.

James Shirley (1596-1666): Contention of Ajax and Ulysses. Sc. 3.

Child Rowland to the dark tower came,

His word was still,—Fie, foh, and fum,

I smell the blood of a British man.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Lear. Act iii. Sc. 4.