smelt

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smelt1 / smelt/ • v. [tr.] [often as n.] (smelting) extract (metal) from its ore by a process involving heating and melting: tin smelting. ∎  extract a metal from (ore) in this way.smelt2 • past and past participle of smell.smelt3 • n. (pl. same or smelts / smelts/ ) a small silvery food fish (family Osmeridae, Osmerus and other genera) that lives in both marine and fresh water and is sometimes fished commercially.

smelt

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smelt Small, silvery food fish related to salmon and trout. It lives in the n Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and in North American inland waters. Family Osmeridae.

smelt

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smelt2 fuse (ore) to obtain the metal. XV (implied in smelter). — MLG., MDu. smelten = OHG. smelzan (G. schmelzen), f. *smelt-, var. of the base of MELT.

smelt

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smelt1 small fish of the genus Osmerus. OE. smelt, smylt, obscurely rel. to similar Continental names for species of fish; cf. SMOLT.

smelt

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smelt See OSMERIDAE.

smelt

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smelt Small oily fish, Osmerus spp.

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