smelt
pronunciation
How to pronounce smelt in British English:
UK [smelt]
How to pronounce smelt in American English:
US [smɛlt]
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- Noun:
- small cold-water silvery fish; migrate between salt and fresh water
- small trout-like silvery marine or freshwater food fishes of cold northern waters
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- Verb:
- extract (metals) by heating
Word Origin
- smelt
- smelt: see melt
- smelt (v.)
- mid-15c. (implied in smelter), from Dutch or Low German smelten, from Proto-Germanic *smelt- (cognates: Old High German smelzan, German schmelzen "to melt"), from PIE *smeld-, variant of *mel- "soft." Thus the word is from a variant of the stem of Old English meltan "to melt" (see melt (v.)). Related: Smelted; smelting.
- smelt (n.)
- Old English smelt "sardine, small salmon-like sea fish," cognate with Dutch smelt "sand eel," Danish smelt (c. 1600). OED notes that it has a peculiar odor (but doesn't suggest a connection with smell); Klein suggests a connection with the way the fish melts in one's mouth. Century Dictionary speculates it means "smooth" and compares Old English smeolt, smylt "serene, smooth."
Example
- 1. The village smelt of rain and warm earth .
- 2. He had smelt the seal blubber lying around the settlement and had taken his chance .
- 3. Then there is the in-store bakery , which can be smelt before it is seen .
- 4. You can smelt 3 blocks iron ore into one iron bar .
- 5. Judges have curtailed pumping in order to protect the delta smelt , a small , endangered fish .