student asking question

Is "smell" here a verb or noun? And what's the meaning?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Here, "smell" is a verb, as it means a quality in the air that people can detect with their noses. Usually, when the verb doesn't have an adjective after it, it means that it smells bad. It's not a nice smell! It's used a little metaphorically here to mean that Christmas is terrible and "stinks;" it's unpleasant. But it's used here because it rhymes with "bells!" Ex: The cake smells so nice! Ex: This room smells. = This room smell bad.

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