smelt

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to extract a metal from its ore by heating and chemical reduction

   The furnace can smelt iron ore at very high temperatures.

2. 2
   noun

   a small, silvery cold-water fish of the smelt family

   The river supports a spring run of smelt.

3. 3
   verb

   chiefly British past tense and past participle of smell

   The cellar smelt damp after the storm.

The metalworking verb comes through Middle Dutch or Middle Low German smelten ("to melt"), from a Germanic root also related to melt. The fish name has a separate Germanic history. The past form of smell developed independently from the regular verb pattern.

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