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smell fishy

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smell fishy

to seem suspicious. Barlowe squinted a bit. Something smells fishy here, he thought. something about the deal smelled fishy—too good to be true.

See also: fishy, smell

smell fishy

  (informal)

if a situation or an explanation smells fishy, it causes you to think that someone is being dishonest Webbers's account of what he was doing that evening smells a bit fishy to me.

See smell blood, Wake up and smell the coffee!, smell to high heaven

See also: fishy, smell

smell fishy

Be suspect or suspicious, as in His explanation definitely smells fishy; my guess is that he's lying. This idiom alludes to the fact that fresh fish have no odor but stale or rotten ones do. [Early 1800s]

See also: fishy, smell

smell fishy

in. to seem suspicious. (see also fishy.) Marlowe squinted a bit. Something smells fishy here, he thought.

See also: fishy, smell