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smell fishy
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Idioms and Phrases
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]Discover More
Example Sentences
But there are several other elements in the alleged plot that smell fishy.
From The Daily Beast
Say, Laurie, course your friends are all right, an' it's none o' my business; but they smell fishy to me a mile off.
From Project Gutenberg
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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