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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]
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Example Sentences

But there are several other elements in the alleged plot that smell fishy.

Say, Laurie, course your friends are all right, an' it's none o' my business; but they smell fishy to me a mile off.

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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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