smell-o-meter

noun

That which registers the magnitude of odor.

Meanings

nounsmell-o-meter (plural smell-o-meters)

plural smell-o-meters

  1. informalThat which registers the magnitude of odor.

    1997 May 7, William Greene, misc.fitness.weights, Usenet Somebody needs to invent a "smell-o-meter" for gyms

    2 more examples

    Perhaps the American Library Association should commission high tech wizards to develop a "smell-o-meter" which could standardize our judgments.

    1993 May, Anne M. Turner, It Comes with the Territory: Handling Problem Situations in Libraries, McFarland & Company, page 10

    In other words, the wolf scent that is old, though it registers on the deer’s “smell-o-meter,” causes a far different behavioral reaction than one that is fresh.

    2003 November, Shawn Perich, Michael Furtman, Whitetail Hunting: Top-Notch Strategies for Hunting North America's Most Popular Big-Game Animal, Creative Publishing international, page 13

Origin

  1. Proto-West Germanic*smalljan
  2. Old English*smiellan
  3. Middle Englishsmellen
  4. Englishsmell
  5. Englishsmell-o-meter

From smell + -o-meter.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

smell-o-meter. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/smell-o-meter

MLA

“smell-o-meter.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/smell-o-meter. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “smell-o-meter,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/smell-o-meter.

Source: smell-o-meter on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.