"smell test" meaning in English

See smell test in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: En-au-smell test.ogg Forms: smell tests [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} smell test (plural smell tests)
  1. (figurative) An informal method for determining whether something is authentic, credible, or ethical, by using one's common sense or sense of propriety. Tags: figuratively Synonyms: sniff test, nose test Translations (informal method): mutu-testi (Finnish)
    Sense id: en-smell_test-en-noun-~1DdkR85 Categories (other): English terms with collocations Disambiguation of 'informal method': 80 6 14
  2. An inspection of an object using the sense of smell, as for freshness of food or cleanliness of clothing. Categories (topical): Smell Synonyms: sniff test, nose test Related terms: smell a rat Translations (inspection using the sense of smell): hajukoe (Finnish)
    Sense id: en-smell_test-en-noun-CqcLxgpG Disambiguation of Smell: 14 53 33 Disambiguation of 'inspection using the sense of smell': 12 72 15
  3. (physiology) An assessment of a subject's ability to detect and distinguish odors. Categories (topical): Physiology Synonyms: nose test
    Sense id: en-smell_test-en-noun--StPx-Yg Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Finnish translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 21 24 55 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 12 33 55 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 15 22 63 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 8 21 72 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 16 19 65 Topics: medicine, physiology, sciences
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Translations (physiology: assessment of the sense of smell): hajukoe (Finnish)
Disambiguation of 'physiology: assessment of the sense of smell': 8 47 45

Inflected forms

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        {
          "ref": "1994 May 6, Todd Purdum, “New Yorkers in Congress at War With a Lawyer”, in New York Times, retrieved 2009-02-08:",
          "text": "It just doesn't pass the smell test. It just creates too many opportunities for cutting corners, doing unethical things and basically not telling the truth.",
          "type": "quote"
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        {
          "ref": "2009 January 25, Harvey Araton, “Tear Down Stadium and Build Up the Bronx”, in New York Times:",
          "text": "These aren’t the first megadeals cut by politicians that do not pass the smell test, but nobody has been swindled like the Yankee Stadium community.",
          "type": "quote"
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        "(figurative) An informal method for determining whether something is authentic, credible, or ethical, by using one's common sense or sense of propriety."
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        {
          "word": "sniff test"
        },
        {
          "word": "nose test"
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        "An inspection of an object using the sense of smell, as for freshness of food or cleanliness of clothing."
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        "(physiology) An assessment of a subject's ability to detect and distinguish odors."
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          "text": "I give the smell test to many foods when I shop.",
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        "(physiology) An assessment of a subject's ability to detect and distinguish odors."
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      "sense": "informal method",
      "word": "mutu-testi"
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Download raw JSONL data for smell test meaning in English (3.9kB)


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.