humming
adj.smelling very bad or unpleasant. You use this word when something, like old food or dirty clothes, has a strong, gross scent.
adj.emitting a strong, foul, or offensive odour. Often used predicatively after linking verbs like 'be' or 'smell'.
“Those old gym shoes are absolutely humming.”
“You should probably take the bins out because the kitchen is starting to get a bit humming.”
“The fridge had been left unplugged for a week during the heatwave, and by the time we returned, the entire kitchen was humming.”
Informal British and Australian slang; typically follows a linking verb to describe a state or quality.
In its slang sense of 'smelling bad', humming is an adjective; do not confuse it with the participle describing a low vibrating sound.
“It’s the humming sound produced when one blows air gently across the neck of a bottle, causing air trapped inside to oscillate back and forth.”
“When Lucy* puts her child to bed, she hears a constant humming.”
From hum + -ing.
From Middle English hummynge, equivalent to hum + -ing.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.