smell a rat

1. To sense foul play: “They claim they will honor the terms of the contract, but I smell a rat.”

Idioms and Phrases

Suspect something is wrong, especially a betrayal of some kind. For example, When I didn't hear any more from my prospective employer, I began to smell a rat. This expression alludes to a cat sniffing out a rat. [c. 1550]

Example Sentences

For any of this representative democracy stuff to work, it has to mean something when GOP politicians look up from nibbling on the scraps of the president's long-forgotten past grievances and say, "I smell a rat."

From Salon

Did you smell a rat in Season 1?

From New York Times

She speaks like a refugee from a 1940s potboiler — “Something’s fishy here. I smell a rat” and “Listen, Slick, nothing would make me happier than to put that girl in a box marked return to sender” — but with a patina of acquired elegance.

From Los Angeles Times

"By the end of the message, she seemed to have worked herself into a complete frenzy and was throwing around wild accusations. 'I smell a rat here. It is more than the usual red tape, incompetence and bureaucracy. That's expected! I believe there is corruption here at the highest levels'," he said.

From BBC

"I know enough to smell a rat. There's something going on here that they're not telling us. I just don't know what it is."

From Salon

Related Words

• assume 
• believe 
• consider 
• doubt 
• presume 
• speculate 
• think 
• wonder