smell a rat
CulturalExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Google says it’s part of a “long-standing policy” against creating games that take advantage of “sensitive events,” but some employees smell a rat.
From The Verge ● Oct. 16, 2019
Pilger said that she would often call him, early in the morning, after hearing of a military operation or a surgical air strike somewhere and say, “ ‘I smell a rat.’
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 18, 2019
Just who at this company of divas, nerds and snakes will be the first to smell a rat?
From New York Times ● Dec. 19, 2018
Perhaps we should have more faith that voters — and reporters — are smart enough to smell a rat.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 8, 2016
Smells fishy, they used to say; or, I smell a rat.
From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
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.
