as in stinking
having an unpleasant smell
your smelly sneakers are enough to raise the dead
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Recent Examples of smelly
Banned in Europe In addition to being a carcinogen, formaldehyde, a colorless and smelly gas, can cause rashes and can sicken those who breathe it in, according to the FDA.
—
Ronnie Cohen, NPR, 8 May 2025
Usually, a smelly refrigerator is caused by specific foods inside it and how they're stored.
—Halee Miller Van Ryswyk, Better Homes & Gardens, 5 Apr. 2025
Before, the engine room was a noisy, smelly space below deck.
—Chun-Lien Su, IEEE Spectrum, 29 July 2019
If your plant’s roots or stems are mushy and smelly, your plant may be affected by root rot.
—Lauren Landers, Better Homes & Gardens, 28 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for smelly
Ronnie Cohen, NPR, 8 May 2025
Usually, a smelly refrigerator is caused by specific foods inside it and how they're stored.
—Halee Miller Van Ryswyk, Better Homes & Gardens, 5 Apr. 2025
Before, the engine room was a noisy, smelly space below deck.
—Chun-Lien Su, IEEE Spectrum, 29 July 2019
If your plant’s roots or stems are mushy and smelly, your plant may be affected by root rot.
—Lauren Landers, Better Homes & Gardens, 28 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for smelly
Recent Examples of Synonyms for smelly
Adjective
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This is about a team with a top-10 payroll whose GM committed too stinking much of it to dogs that can’t, or won’t, pull the sled.—
Sean Keeler,
The Denver Post,
22 Dec. 2019
-
Muttaiah said the man inside the stinking manhole was working without any safety equipment — no gloves, no shoes, no supplemental oxygen.—
Joanna Slater,
Washington Post,
16 Dec. 2019
Adjective
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This fourth-generation farm is ripe for the picking—butterbeans, sunflowers, pumpkins, and more.—
Patricia Shannon,
Southern Living,
7 Aug. 2025
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This indicates the grapes were harvested very ripe, which suggests a winemaking team that prioritized concentration and flavor development over simply getting the wine to market quickly.—
Elise Taylor,
Vogue,
6 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Midsummer is usually when sargassum, the floating seaweed that often washes up in malodorous piles on Florida beaches, starts to wane.—
Bill Kearney,
Sun Sentinel,
5 Aug. 2025
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Callery pear and Bradford pear trees are considered malodorous, according to the Spruce, a home and garden site.—
Haadiza Ogwude,
The Enquirer,
2 July 2025
Adjective
-
The Nationals put up a four-spot against Verlander, the backbreaker being CJ Abrams’ towering two-run shot off the right-field foul pole.—
Justice delos Santos,
Mercury News,
10 Aug. 2025
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Guests will enjoy the experience free from disruptive behavior, foul language, obscene gestures, fighting, unruly conduct or inconsiderate actions.—
Ed Masley,
AZCentral.com,
9 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Kruse and her co-conspirators are now on their fourth different set of lawyers in this dispute, and this is a disgusting publicity stunt by new counsel, as evidenced by the fact that the complaint and press release were sent to the press before the complaint was served.—
Michaela Zee,
Variety,
13 Aug. 2025
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The series sets the various human and humanoid segments of its cast on a direct course with the distinctly inhuman alien flora and fauna on the ship – there are some inventive little monsters aboard, disgusting and harrowing in their own special ways – to great effect.—
Kelly Lawler,
USA Today,
12 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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One of the canines was wrapped in a spring protruding from a broken, threadbare couch, and yelping for help when cops arrived at the filthy apartment in the Belmont section of the Bronx on Aug. 4, officials said.—
Thomas Tracy,
New York Daily News,
14 Aug. 2025
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An image of the inside of the bunker, released by the sheriff’s office, showed a filthy mattress in a corner, a folding chair and a fan.—
Dennis Romero,
NBC news,
26 July 2025
Adjective
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Their stories include the reasons that kept them from evacuating and then the harrowing odysseys that took some of them through fetid streets of flood waters, others to the nightmare that was the Superdome or the Convention Center, and still others across impassable bridges and freeways.—
Daniel Fienberg,
HollywoodReporter,
22 July 2025
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That is now as pathetic to me as a fetid caveman’s toolmaking would be to a great thinker like da Vinci or even Edgar Allen Poe.—
Graham Techler,
New Yorker,
8 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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The shop will look for common indicators of flood damage such as damp and musty odors, carpet and upholstery that has been recently cleaned or replaced, dirt and dried mud under the dash, in the engine compartment, and inside the trunk.—
Rick Barrett,
jsonline.com,
13 Aug. 2025
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At the program’s outset, Felt tried to help the kids’ understanding by offering some musty statistics.—
Rick Kogan,
Chicago Tribune,
30 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Smelly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/smelly. Accessed 21 Aug. 2025.
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