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Glite Dictionary
🦠 A musty odor 🌿 A strong cannabis odor
dank smell

dank smell

9.6
A strong smell of cannabis smoke or buds
  • noun
  • /dæŋk smɛl/
  • NSFW
translation icon : olor a marihuana
  • The dank smell of the buds filled the room.

Examples

  • Police noted the dank smell in the vehicle when they stopped it at the checkpoint.

  • After the party, a lingering dank smell told me someone had been smoking cannabis in the kitchen.

  • She bought an air purifier to remove the persistent dank smell after her roommate's weekend.

  • Can you smell that dank smell coming from the garden?

  • The dank smell of fresh cannabis wafted through the air, making everyone excited.

  • When he entered the room, the unmistakable dank smell of high-quality marijuana hit his nostrils.

  • She was greeted by a strong, dank smell as she opened the door to the cannabis dispensary.

Synonyms

weediness
vsdank smell
  • NSFW
9.4

A taste or smell like cannabis

refers to a stronger pungent smell linked to high quality and potency

Antonyms

odorless
  • US
11 3.0

Not having any smell

How Pungent

dank smell
  • NSFW
9.6
weediness
  • NSFW
9.4

Surface Forms

dank smell singular
dank smells plural

Morphology

dank + smell

The noun phrase is compositionally adjective + noun, so if a learner knows the slang sense of 'dank' (potent/high-quality cannabis) and 'smell' (odor), the meaning 'strong cannabis odor' is directly derivable. However, 'dank' also has a common literal meaning ('damp, musty') and the cannabis sense is slang and culture-specific, so an average B1 learner who only knows the basic literal meaning would likely misinterpret or not predict the MWE's intended sense.

Etymology

The slang use of dank smell grew in cannabis culture when people noticed fresh, high-quality buds were sticky and gave off a very strong scent. Because those wet, powerful smells stood out, dank smell came to mean 'a strong, pungent smell associated with cannabis'.