Piney describes something that smells, tastes, or looks like pine trees. When you walk through a pine forest, that sharp, fresh, slightly resinous scent in the air is piney. Some cleaning products have a piney smell because they contain pine oil.

The word captures that distinctive quality of evergreen trees: clean, woodsy, and a little bit sharp or spicy. When someone describes a candle as having a piney scent, they mean it reminds them of pine needles and sap. A hiking trail through thick evergreens might smell intensely piney, especially after rain, when the scent becomes stronger.

You might also hear piney used to describe places with many pine trees, like the piney woods of East Texas or the piney hills of northern Georgia. In this sense, it works like “sandy” for beaches or “rocky” for mountains: it tells you what dominates the landscape.