scent

• sent (obsolete)

From c.1400, borrowed 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.

• Rhymes: -ɛnt
• enPR: sĕnt, IPA^(key): /sɛnt/

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• Homophones: cent, sent

scent (countable and uncountable, plural scents)

1. A distinctive odour or smell.

   the scent of flowers

   the scent of a skunk

2. An odour left by an animal that may be used for tracing.

   The dogs lost the scent.

3. The sense of smell.

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

4. A perfume.
5. (figuratively) Any trail or trace that can be followed to find something or someone, such as the paper left behind in a paperchase.
6. (obsolete) Sense, perception.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene:

     A fit false dream, that can delude the sleeper's sent.

• Almost always applied to agreeable odors (fragrances).

• scentless

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

1. to detect the scent of

   The hounds scented the fox in the woods.

   • Shakespeare

     Methinks I scent the morning air.

2. to impart an odour to

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

   • Dryden

     Balm from a silver box distilled around, / Shall all bedew the roots, and scent the sacred ground.

3. To have a smell.
   • Holland

     Thunderbolts […] do scent strongly of brimstone.

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

• cents