perfume

Borrowed from Middle French parfum, from the obsolete Italian parfumare (“to smoke through”). Doublet of parfum.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɜːfjuːm/
• (US) pûr'fyo͞om", IPA^(key): /ˈpɝfjuːm/ or enPR: pər-fyoo͞m', IPA^(key): /pɚˈfjuːm/
• (General American):

• (noun) IPA^(key): /ˈpɚfjuːm/
• (verb) IPA^(key): /pɚˈfjuːm/

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perfume (countable and uncountable, plural perfumes)

1. A pleasant smell; the scent, odor, or odoriferous particles emitted from a sweet-smelling substance; a pleasant odor
   • 1907, Robert William Chambers, chapter V, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326:

     Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.

2. A substance created to provide a pleasant smell or one which emits an agreeable odor.
   • 2014 March 7, Nicole Vulser, “Perfume manufacturers must cope with the scarcity of precious supplies”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 190, number 13, page 30:

     The perfume industry is facing a major problem: maintaining constant levels of quality is crucial, but it is increasingly difficult to obtain a regular supply of all the necessary natural ingredients.

• (pleasant smell): aroma, fragrance, scent
• (substance providing a pleasant smell): fragrance, scent

• acoustic perfume
• perfumelike
• perfumey

perfume (third-person singular simple present perfumes, present participle perfuming, simple past and past participle perfumed)

1. (transitive) To apply perfume to; to fill or impregnate with a perfume; to scent.

• perfumed
• perfumery

• perfume in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

perfume m (plural perfumes)

1. perfume (substance providing a pleasant smell)

perfume

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of perfumar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of perfumar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of perfumar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of perfumar

Nominal of perfumar

• IPA^(key): /perˈfume/

perfume m (plural perfumes)

1. perfume

• olor
• aroma
• fragancia

• perfumar
• perfumería
• perfumero
• perfumista

perfume

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of perfumar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of perfumar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of perfumar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of perfumar.