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# smelt

«smelt» in Mova's school dictionary: **Past form of smell: noticed a smell, or gave off a smell** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

verb (past tense and past participle of smell, mainly UK, Ireland, Australia: smell, smells, smelt or smelled); verb (smelt, smelts, smelted, smelting — to melt rock to get metal); noun (a smelt, smelts — a small fish)

### meaning for a pupil

1) (UK) Past form of smell: noticed a smell, or gave off a smell. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/smelt/#m1)

2) To heat rock (ore) until the metal in it melts out. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/smelt/#m2)

3) A small silver fish found in the sea and lakes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/smelt/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In everyday UK and Commonwealth English «it smelt lovely» is common; US English prefers smelled. In science and history, smelting iron and copper in furnaces began the Iron Age and Bronze Age. Phrases: smelt of, smelt iron.

### examples

- The kitchen smelt of fresh bread. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/smelt/#x1)
- I smelt smoke and called for help. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/smelt/#x2)
- The dog smelt something in the bushes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/smelt/#x3)
- People smelted iron in hot furnaces. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/smelt/#x4)
- Copper is smelted from rocks called ore. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/smelt/#x5)
- We caught smelt in the lake. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/smelt/#x6)
- I smelt it; it smelt honey. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/smelt/#x7)

### note

Both smelt and smelled are correct as the past of smell; smelt is British, smelled is more American. The «metal» smelt is a regular verb: smelted. The joke «Who smelt it dealt it» uses the smell meaning.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «smelt» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/smelt/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.