"smell like a rose" meaning in English

See smell like a rose in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

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. 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: come up roses
    Sense id: en-smell_like_a_rose-en-verb-qHVCvag~ Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English similes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "smells like a rose",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "smelling like a rose",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "smelt like a rose",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "smelt like a rose",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "smelled like a rose",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "smelled like a rose",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "smell<,,smelt:> like a rose"
      },
      "expansion": "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)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English similes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "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": "come up roses"
        }
      ],
      "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"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-smell like a rose.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a9/En-au-smell_like_a_rose.ogg/En-au-smell_like_a_rose.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/En-au-smell_like_a_rose.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "smell like a rose"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "smells like a rose",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "smelling like a rose",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "smelt like a rose",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "smelt like a rose",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "smelled like a rose",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "smelled like a rose",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "smell<,,smelt:> like a rose"
      },
      "expansion": "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)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "come up roses"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English colloquialisms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English similes",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "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",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, colloquial, simile) To be regarded as appealing, virtuous, or respectable; to be untainted or unharmed."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-smell like a rose.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a9/En-au-smell_like_a_rose.ogg/En-au-smell_like_a_rose.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/En-au-smell_like_a_rose.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "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"
    }
  ],
  "word": "smell like a rose"
}

Download raw JSONL data for smell like a rose meaning in English (2.9kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). 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.