Fetid meaning

fĕtĭd, fētĭd
The definition of fetid is something that smells really bad or unpleasant.

Rotting, spoiled food is an example of something that might be described as fetid.

adjective
2
3
Having an offensive odor.
adjective
2
3
Having a bad smell, as of decay; putrid.
adjective
2
3
Foul-smelling, stinking.

I caught the fetid odor of dirty socks.

adjective
0
2
(rare) The foul-smelling asafoetida plant, or its extracts.
noun
0
3
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Origin of fetid

  • Middle English from Latin fētidus from fētēre to stink

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • From the Latin adjective, fetidus (“having offensive odour”) (often incorrectly foetidus, giving rise to the variant spelling), originally feteo (“to stink”).

    From Wiktionary

Fetid Sentence Examples

  • Sluggish brackish streams creep along between banks of fetid black mud.

  • terminating the short annual shoot which bears a whorl of four or more leaves below the flower; in this and in some species of the nearly allied genus Trillium (chiefly temperate North America) the flowers have a fetid smell, which together with the dark purple of the ovary and stigmas and frequently also of the stamens and petals, attracts carrion-loving flies, which alight on the stigma and then climb the anthers and become dusted with pollen; the pollen is then carried to the stigmas of another flower.

  • We wanted the audience to feel the fetid claustrophobia of the bunker.

  • fetid atmosphere, we should be thankful for small mercies.

  • fetid air away from Oil Drum Lane.

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Words near fetid in the Dictionary