fetid

comparative more fetid · superlative most fetid · alternative foetid · alternative archaic fœtid

1. Foul-smelling, stinking.

   I caught the fetid odor of dirty socks.

   2 more examples

   […] this room, where misfortune seems to ooze, where speculation lurks in corners, and of which Madame Vauquer inhales the warm, fetid air without being nauseated.

   1878, Henry James, “Honoré de Balzac”, in French Poets and Novelists, London: Macmillan, II, p. 122

   Hiro fakes toward the whorehouse, then cuts directly toward an exposed section of wall. The fabric of the building is tough, but his katana slices a six-foot rent through it with a single gliding motion, and then he's outside, spat out of the hole on a jet of fetid air.

   1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, page 285

2. datedslangUnpleasant.

   "I'm not going to promise anything after the perfectly fetid way you're running off," she retorted.

   1934, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], The Bravo of London

plural fetids · alternative foetid · alternative archaic fœtid

1. rareThe foul-smelling asafoetida plant, or its extracts.