smell test
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English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Audio (AU) (file)
Noun[edit]
smell test (plural smell tests)
- (figurative) An informal method for determining whether something is authentic, credible, or ethical, by using one's common sense or sense of propriety.
- to pass the smell test
- 1994 May 6, Todd Purdum, “New Yorkers in Congress at War With a Lawyer”, in New York Times, retrieved 8 Feb. 2009:
- 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.
- 2009 January 25, Harvey Araton, “Tear Down Stadium and Build Up the Bronx”, in New York Times[1]:
- 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.
- An inspection of an object using the sense of smell, as for freshness of food.
- 2006 October 25, Olivia Wu, “It's a hairy crab extravaganza”, in San Francisco Chronicle, retrieved 8 Feb. 2009:
- I give the smell test to many foods when I shop.
- (physiology) An assessment of a subject's ability to detect and distinguish odors.
- 1990, K. A. Fackelmann, “Smokers Suffer from Impaired Smell”, in Science News, volume 137, number 9, page 134:
- Although scientists have yet to pin down any biological basis for cigarette smokers' impaired performance on the smell test, Doty says he suspects that certain chemicals in smoke . . . damage the olfactory receptor cells in the nose.
Synonyms[edit]
Translations[edit]
informal method
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inspection using the sense of smell
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physiology: assessment of the sense of smell
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