noisome Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adjective satellite causing or able to cause nausea
    queasy; vile; nauseous; offensive; loathsome; sickening; nauseating.
    • a nauseating smell
    • nauseous offal
    • a sickening stench
  2. adjective satellite offensively malodorous
    stinking; foul-smelling; foul; foetid; funky; smelly; fetid; ill-scented.
    • a foul odor
    • the kitchen smelled really funky

WordNet

Noi"some adjective
Etymology
For noysome, fr. noy for annoy. See Annoy.
Definitions
  1. Noxious to health; hurtful; mischievous; unwholesome; insalubrious; destructive; as, noisome effluvia. "Noisome pestilence." Ps. xci. 3.
  2. Offensive to the smell or other senses; disgusting; fetid. "Foul breath is noisome." Shak. -- Noi"some*ly, adv. -- Noi"some*ness, n. Syn. -- Noxious; unwholesome; insalubrious; mischievous; destructive. -- Noisome, Noxious. These words have to a great extent been interchanged; but there is a tendency to make a distinction between them, applying noxious to things that inflict evil directly; as, a noxious plant, noxious practices, etc., and noisome to things that operate with a remoter influence; as, noisome vapors, a noisome pestilence, etc. Noisome has the additional sense of disqusting. A garden may be free from noxious weeds or animals; but, if recently covered with manure, it may be filled with a noisome smell.

Webster 1913