smell fishy

1. 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]

Example Sentences

Sure, there’s a spaghetti trope mishap and some of the red herrings smell fishy, but even these stumbles contain illuminating insight into Serwa’s character.

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The artwork and products, which neither smell fishy nor look like the contents in your recycling bin, are important to the ocean conservation movement: They remove or deter trash from our waterways and raise awareness about the problem.

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If the C.E.O.’s intentions smell fishy, you also have every right to engage in a little self-preservation.

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But to others, promises of a Brexit bonanza smell fishy.

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It is complicated, though, because there are aspects of BDS that smell fishy.

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