Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A strong, offensive odor. synonym: stench.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Any strong offensive smell; stench.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A strong, offensive smell; stench; fetidness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An unpleasant smell.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a distinctive odor that is offensively unpleasant

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English fetoure, from Latin fētor, from fētēre, to stink.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • "...went down into the unbreathable fetor, watched nervously by the slaver's hands, who held their whips in an uncertain, awkward fashion..."

    --P. O'Brian, The Commodore, 190

    March 17, 2008

  • "I had picked out a distinct stench of sickness amid the general fetor. Not only the ghost of long-dried vomit, but the sweet smell of purulent discharge and that indefinable musty, yeast-rising odor that seems to be simply the smell of illness itself."

    —Diana Gabaldon, The Fiery Cross (NY: Bantam Dell, 2001), 419

    January 20, 2010

  • See also foetor.

    January 21, 2010