Also 6–7 smellar. [f. SMELL v. + -ER.]
1. One who has or exercises the sense of smell; one who smells out, etc.
1519. Horman, Vulgaria, 45. They that haue nostrellis strayght forth be good smellars.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 258. The smellers or felers therof hath thought them selfe rauysshed as yf they had ben in paradyse.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 171. The smeller of smellers then, thou art euyn he.
1658. trans. Porta’s Nat. Magick, VIII. i. 218. Adding a little Musk, to gain an easier reception of the Smeller.
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacræ, III. i. § 12. The first smellers out of so great a design.
1888. H. W. Parker, Spirit of Beauty (1891), 92. Calderwood shows how the sensationalists would evolve a whole philosophy of mind and morals from a smell, and that, too, without a smeller!
b. slang. ‘A prying fellow; one who tries to smell out something; a sneaking spy’ (Cent. Dict.).
2. † a. Cant. A garden. Obs.–0
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, E iv. Smellar, a garden; not Smelling cheate, for thats a Nosegay.
b. One who has a smell; a stinker.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Nice Valour, IV. i. Such nasty smellers, That … They might have cudgell’d me with their very stink.
3. A feeler; a slender tactile organ, hair, etc.; esp. one of the whiskers of a cat.
1665. Hooke, Microgr., 175, 180. Of the Eyes and Head of a Grey drone-Fly.… As concerning the horns F F, the feelers or smellers, G G, the Proboscis H H [etc.].
1738. Gentl. Mag., VIII. 378/2. Smellers, or kind of Whiskers, at his Nostrils.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulgar T., Smellers, a cat’s whiskers.
1840. Peter Parley’s Ann., I. 266. Mosette felt her smellers crackle close to her nose.
1899. Daily News, 18 April, 8/2. Lost,… a black tom cat. Answers to the name of ‘Diddy.’ White chest, white hind legs, and white smellers.
4. slang. a. The nose; pl. the nostrils.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew.
1822. Blackw. Mag., II. 594. Here was … a hit on the wind—a douss on the smeller.
1853. ‘C. Bede,’ Verdant Green, I. xvi. Come on … and let me have a rap at your smellers.
1894. Nation, 29 Nov., 399/3. He would rather not have to draw his claret and close his peepers and mash his smeller and break his breadbasket.
b. A blow on the nose. Also transf.
1824. Spirit Publ. Jrnls. (1825), 38. He swore he would tip me a smeller.
1864. Daily Telegr., 3 Sept., 5/2. The Metacomet, which was hitting out wildly, and delivered to the Hartford a ‘smeller’ intended for the rebel ram.
1872. Punch, 6 April, 150/2. What in low fighting slang is called a smeller To Auberon Herbert (on the Parks Bill) fell.
