The phrase "acrid scent" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a strong, sharp smell that is often unpleasant, typically associated with smoke, chemicals, or certain foods.
Example: "The acrid scent of burnt rubber filled the air, making it difficult to breathe."
Alternatives: "sharp odor" or "pungent smell."
Soon the room filled with the thick, acrid scent of burning flesh.
It was filled with tools and pieces of metal, and the air held the pleasantly acrid scent of machine oil.
A battle over race-and-gender identity politics among the Democrats, with its acrid scent from the 1960s, might be just the spark for a Republican comeback.
A chocolate mousse was stiff, hard and came in a plastic container where it had been absorbing the acrid scent of something other than chocolate far too long.
Inside, a handful of Yankees showered off the acrid scent of dried Champagne, dirt and sweat, dressing quickly to join the championship celebrations across the city.
Nonetheless, plopped down on a corner just outside Central Park, with the sight and acrid scent of carriage horses as a backdrop, and with children scrambling onto its back, "Perceval" is a cheeky tribute to British culture — high, low, and somewhere in between — transported with subversive colonial glee onto American soil.
Gusts of wind carried the scent of ash and the acrid smell of burning flesh.
Among the scented cultivars, 5 compounds [4-methyldecane (pungent, acrid odor), 4-cyclopentylidene-2-butanone (woody and fruity), toluene (sweet, pungent, benzene), indole (floral, sweet, burnt) and allylcyclohexane (fruity, pineapple)] were detected specifically in AM-157 and camphene (woody, camphoreous) was detected only in BA-370.
Columbia campus, beside the steps to Low Memorial Library: right after a heated argument with a young man, a young woman takes off a layer of clothing, sprays deodorant on; also a whiff of foundation; hair gel; background scents of greenery and the nearby fountain; very faint acrid smell of a new coat of black paint applied to the awning of the mathematics building.
An acrid smell still filled the air.
The breeze carried an acrid smell, like gasoline fumes.
