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Glite Dictionary
to smell like a tart's handbag

to smell like a tart's handbag

9.9
To have a strong, unpleasant scent of old heavy perfume and dampness
  • idiom
  • NSFW
translation icon : oler a perfume barato
  • After weeks in the damp closet, the coat smelled like a tart's handbag.

Examples

  • That old bottle of perfume smells like a tart's handbag and gives me a headache.

  • If your living room smells like a tart's handbag, you might want to air it out.

  • The old house smelled like a tart's handbag.

  • Why does this room smell like a tart's handbag?

  • The old sofa smells like a tart's handbag after years of neglect.

  • After storing the clothes without proper ventilation, they smelled like a tart's handbag.

  • Walking into the dusty attic, I noticed everything smelled like a tart's handbag from stale perfume.

Synonyms

to stink
vsto smell like a tart's handbag
165 1.0

To have a very bad smell

is an artificial heavy perfume mixed with a musty note
to stink like a mackerel
vsto smell like a tart's handbag
  • Informal
9.9

Have a very strong smell like old fish or seem clearly suspicious

is an artificial heavy perfume mixed with mustiness, not a sign of suspicion

Antonyms

pleasant
314 1.0

Giving a gentle feeling of enjoyment

fresh
314 1.0

Clean air or water that has no harmful things

How Unpleasant

to reek
33 5.9
to smell like a tart's handbag
  • NSFW
9.9
to stink
165 1.0

Surface Forms

smell like a tart's handbag infinitive
smelled like a tart's handbag past
smelled like a tart's handbag past participle
smelling like a tart's handbag present participle
smells like a tart's handbag third person singular

Morphology

smell + like + a + tart's + handbag

There is a recognisable compositional basis: 'smell' + 'like' + 'handbag' can lead learners to infer an odor resembling what might come from a handbag (e.g. strong perfume), so some meaning is recoverable from the parts. However, the expression relies on cultural/derogatory connotations of 'tart' and a stereotypical image (cheap, heavy, musty/artificial perfume) that are idiomatic and not predictable from the words alone, so full understanding would likely require prior exposure.

Etymology

The idiom smell like a tart's handbag creates a simple picture: a small handbag owned by a tart, an old word for a woman who sold sex, full of strong, fake perfume and damp, old things that give a heavy, unpleasant smell. So saying something smells like a tart's handbag means it 'has a strong, unpleasant, and often artificial odor'.