"smell like a rose" meaning in All languages combined

See smell like a rose on Wiktionary

Verb [English]

Audio: En-au-smell like a rose.ogg Forms: smells like a rose [present, singular, third-person], smelling like a rose [participle, present], smelt like a rose [participle, past], smelt like a rose [past], smelled like a rose [participle, past], smelled like a rose [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|smell<,,smelt:> like a rose}} smell like a rose (third-person singular simple present smells like a rose, present participle smelling like a rose, simple past and past participle smelt like a rose or smelled like a rose)
  1. (idiomatic, colloquial, simile) To be regarded as appealing, virtuous, or respectable; to be untainted or unharmed. Wikipedia link: a rose by any other name would smell as sweet Tags: colloquial, idiomatic Synonyms: come out smelling like a rose, come out smelling of roses, come up smelling like a rose, come up smelling of roses Related terms: a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, come up roses, odour of sanctity

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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    {
      "form": "smells like a rose",
      "tags": [
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        "singular",
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    },
    {
      "form": "smelling like a rose",
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    },
    {
      "form": "smelt like a rose",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
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    },
    {
      "form": "smelt like a rose",
      "tags": [
        "past"
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    },
    {
      "form": "smelled like a rose",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
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      "form": "smelled like a rose",
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      "name": "en-verb"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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        {
          "text": "come out smelling like a rose",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1953 November 22, “Prison is quiet after hearing”, in Spokesman-Review, Spokane, USA, retrieved 2009-08-04, page 22:",
          "text": "\"I don't suppose anyone from the director down will come out of this deal smelling like a rose,\" the warden commented, \"but our only hope is that some good will result from the hearing.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1990, Marilyn Cannaday, Bigger than Life: The Creator of Doc Savage, →ISBN, page 28:",
          "text": "But compared to others, Dent came out of the Depression \"smelling like a rose.\" He later boasted that he made $18,000 a year with his writing during the Depression.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002 June 24, Christopher Palmeri, “Can CalPERS Afford to Throw Stones?”, in BusinessWeek, retrieved 2009-08-04:",
          "text": "The champion of corporate governance should smell like a rose. Instead, there's an unpleasant whiff of pork-barrel politics rising from the board.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be regarded as appealing, virtuous, or respectable; to be untainted or unharmed."
      ],
      "id": "en-smell_like_a_rose-en-verb-qHVCvag~",
      "links": [
        [
          "appealing",
          "appealing"
        ],
        [
          "virtuous",
          "virtuous"
        ],
        [
          "respectable",
          "respectable"
        ],
        [
          "untainted",
          "untainted"
        ],
        [
          "unharmed",
          "unharmed"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "simile",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, colloquial, simile) To be regarded as appealing, virtuous, or respectable; to be untainted or unharmed."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet"
        },
        {
          "word": "come up roses"
        },
        {
          "word": "odour of sanctity"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "come out smelling like a rose"
        },
        {
          "word": "come out smelling of roses"
        },
        {
          "word": "come up smelling like a rose"
        },
        {
          "word": "come up smelling of roses"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet"
      ]
    }
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      "form": "smells like a rose",
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    {
      "form": "smelling like a rose",
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    {
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      "form": "smelled like a rose",
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      "name": "en-verb"
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
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    {
      "word": "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet"
    },
    {
      "word": "come up roses"
    },
    {
      "word": "odour of sanctity"
    }
  ],
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          "text": "come out smelling like a rose",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1953 November 22, “Prison is quiet after hearing”, in Spokesman-Review, Spokane, USA, retrieved 2009-08-04, page 22:",
          "text": "\"I don't suppose anyone from the director down will come out of this deal smelling like a rose,\" the warden commented, \"but our only hope is that some good will result from the hearing.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1990, Marilyn Cannaday, Bigger than Life: The Creator of Doc Savage, →ISBN, page 28:",
          "text": "But compared to others, Dent came out of the Depression \"smelling like a rose.\" He later boasted that he made $18,000 a year with his writing during the Depression.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002 June 24, Christopher Palmeri, “Can CalPERS Afford to Throw Stones?”, in BusinessWeek, retrieved 2009-08-04:",
          "text": "The champion of corporate governance should smell like a rose. Instead, there's an unpleasant whiff of pork-barrel politics rising from the board.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be regarded as appealing, virtuous, or respectable; to be untainted or unharmed."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "appealing",
          "appealing"
        ],
        [
          "virtuous",
          "virtuous"
        ],
        [
          "respectable",
          "respectable"
        ],
        [
          "untainted",
          "untainted"
        ],
        [
          "unharmed",
          "unharmed"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "simile",
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        "(idiomatic, colloquial, simile) To be regarded as appealing, virtuous, or respectable; to be untainted or unharmed."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "idiomatic"
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      "wikipedia": [
        "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet"
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    {
      "word": "come out smelling like a rose"
    },
    {
      "word": "come out smelling of roses"
    },
    {
      "word": "come up smelling like a rose"
    },
    {
      "word": "come up smelling of roses"
    }
  ],
  "word": "smell like a rose"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (c15a5ce and 5c11237). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.