Also 6 smellefyeste, smelle-, smel-feast(e. [f. SMELL v. (or sb.) + FEAST sb.]
1. One who scents out where feasting is to be had; one who comes uninvited to share in a feast; a parasite, a greedy sponger. Now arch. (very common c. 1540–1700).
1519. Horman, Vulgaria, 77. Smellefyestes, lyckedysshes, and franchars come vncalled.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 199. Parasites, wer called suche smellefeastes as would seeke to bee free geastes at riche mennes tables.
1602. F. Hering, Anat., 13. Our Smell-feast will be sure to haunt the Houses and Tables of Rich and great Men.
1664. H. More, Myst. Iniq., 21. Like so many smell-feasts they hankered near the Altars to enjoy the nidorous fumes.
1692. L’Estrange, Fables (1694), 33. The Fly is an intruder and a common Smell-feast that spunges upon other people’s trenchers.
1708. O. Dykes, Eng. Prov. & Refl. (ed. 3), 163. The Flatteries of Sicophants and Smell-Feasts.
1869. Browning, Ring & Bk., VIII. 39. The Smell-feasts rouse them at the hint There’s cookery in a certain dwelling-place.
1884. Miss Dillwyn, Jill, II. ix. 135. That smell-feast of a Sue meanwhile had profited by the commotion to get into a little mischief on her own account.
b. attrib. Parasitic, sponging.
1566. Drant, Horace, Sat., II. vii. I ij. I am a smelfeaste bellygod, idle and full of slouthe.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., 339. These smel-feast-parasites in comedies.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., IV. xx. 343–4. These smell-feast birds … came to feed on their carcases.
1772. Nugent, Hist. Friar Gerund, II. 67. Some smell-feast friars of different communities.
2. ‘A feast at which the guests are supposed to feed upon the odors only of the viands’ (Webster, 1864.)
