The scents do penetrate ours (6)
I believe the answer is:
odours
'the scents' is the definition.
('odour' can be a synonym of 'scent')
'do penetrate ours' is the wordplay.
'penetrate' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'do' inserted into 'ours' is 'ODOURS'.
(Other definitions for odours that I've seen before include "for the nose to detect" , "emanations" , "Smells, good or bad" , "Smells of any kind" , "Smells, usually unpleasant" .)