Smelt
noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Any small anadromous fish of the family Osmeridae, found in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and in lakes in North America and northern part of Europe.
- 2 Production of metal, especially iron, from ore in a process that involves heating and chemical reduction of metal compounds into purified metal. countable, uncountable
- 3 small trout-like silvery marine or freshwater food fishes of cold northern waters wordnet
- 4 A fool; a simpleton. obsolete
"These direct Men, they are no Men of fashion, Talk what you will, this is a very Smelt"
- 5 Any of the various liquids or semi-molten solids produced and used during the course of such production. countable, uncountable
"1982, Raymond E. Kirk and Donald F. Othmer, Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, Wiley, →ISBN, page 405, The green liquor, ie, [sic] the solution obtained on dissolving the smelt, contains an insoluble residue called dregs, which gives it a dark green appearance."
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- 6 small cold-water silvery fish; migrate between salt and fresh water wordnet
- 1 simple past and past participle of smell form-of, participle, past
- 2 To produce metal, especially iron, from ore in a process that involves heating and chemical reduction of metal compounds into purified metal.
- 3 extract (metals) by heating wordnet
Example
More examples"The instant he opened the door, he smelt something burning."
Etymology
From Middle English smelt, from Old English smelt, from Proto-Germanic *smeltaz.
From very early Middle English smel; likely to derive from Old English, but not recorded.
From Middle Dutch smelten (“to melt”) or Middle Low German smelten (“to melt”), from Old Dutch *smeltan or Old Saxon smeltan, both from Proto-West Germanic *smeltan, from Proto-Germanic *smeltaną (“to melt”). Related to English melt and Old English meltan (“to melt”). Cognate to Dutch smelten, German schmelzen.
Related phrases
More for "smelt"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.