air freshener

noun

: a device used to disperse chemicals intended to mask or eliminate unpleasant odors

The bathrooms should also have matching towels, soap and tissue dispensers, and a candle or plug-in air freshener with a pleasant scent.

—William Bronchick and Ray Cooper, How to Sell a House Fast in a Slow Real Estate Market, 2009

also : the chemicals dispersed from such a device

This smell is sharp and thin and chemical, not exactly the smell of air freshener and not exactly the smell of air conditioning but acrid and a little stale and specific to Vegas …

—Joan Didion, Esquire, May 1977

Word History

First Known Use

1938, in the meaning defined above

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