Meaning of smell test | Babel Free

Definitions

1. An informal method for determining whether something is authentic, credible, or ethical, by using one's common sense or sense of propriety.
   figuratively
2. An inspection of an object using the sense of smell, as for freshness of food or cleanliness of clothing.
3. An assessment of a subject's ability to detect and distinguish odors.

Equivalents

Examples

“Near-synonyms: sanity test, sanity check, reality check”

“to pass the smell test”

“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.”

“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.”

“I give the smell test to many foods when I shop.”

“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.”

CEFR level