smell a rat - Definitions from Dictionary.com

5 results for: smell a rat

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

rat

Audio Help [rat] Pronunciation Key noun, interjection, verb, rat·ted, rat·ting.

–noun

1.	any of several long-tailed rodents of the family Muridae, of the genus Rattus and related genera, distinguished from the mouse by being larger.

2.	any of various similar or related animals.

3.	Slang. a scoundrel.

Slang.

a.	a person who abandons or betrays his or her party or associates, esp. in a time of trouble.

b.	an informer.

c.	a scab laborer.

5.	Slang. a person who frequents a specified place: a mall rat; gym rats.

6.	a pad with tapered ends formerly used in women's hair styles to give the appearance of greater thickness.

–interjection

7.	rats, Slang. (an exclamation of disappointment, disgust, or disbelief.)

–verb (used without object)

Slang.

a.	to desert one's party or associates, esp. in a time of trouble.

b.	to turn informer; squeal: He ratted on the gang, and the police arrested them.

c.	to work as a scab.

9.	to hunt or catch rats.

–verb (used with object)

10.	to dress (the hair) with or as if with a rat.

—Idiom

11.	smell a rat, to suspect or surmise treachery; have suspicion: After noting several discrepancies in his client's story, the attorney began to smell a rat.

[Origin: bef. 1000; ME rat(t)e, OE ræt; c. D rat, G Ratz, Ratte

]

—Related forms

ratlike, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
smell a rat

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

smell

Audio Help [smel] Pronunciation Key verb, smelled or smelt, smell·ing, noun

–verb (used with object)

1.	to perceive the odor or scent of through the nose by means of the olfactory nerves; inhale the odor of: I smell something burning.

2.	to test by the sense of smell: She smelled the meat to see if it was fresh.

3.	to perceive, detect, or discover by shrewdness or sagacity: The detective smelled foul play.

–verb (used without object)

4.	to perceive something by its odor or scent.

5.	to search or investigate (fol. by around or about).

6.	to give off or have an odor or scent: Do the yellow roses smell?

7.	to give out an offensive odor; stink.

8.	to have a particular odor (fol. by of): My hands smell of fish.

9.	to have a trace or suggestion (fol. by of).

10.	Informal. to be of inferior quality; stink: The play is good, but the direction smells.

11.	Informal. to have the appearance or a suggestion of guilt or corruption: They may be honest, but the whole situation smells.

–noun

12.	the sense of smell; faculty of smelling.

13.	the quality of a thing that is or may be smelled; odor; scent.

14.	a trace or suggestion.

15.	an act or instance of smelling.

16.	a pervading appearance, character, quality, or influence: the smell of money.

—Verb phrases

17.	smell out, to look for or detect as if by smelling; search out: to smell out enemy spies.

18.	smell up, to fill with an offensive odor; stink up: The garbage smelled up the yard.

—Idiom

19.	smell a rat. rat (def. 6).

[Origin: 1125–75; early ME smell, smull (n.), smellen, smullen (v.) < ?

]

—Related forms

smell·a·ble, adjective

smell-less, adjective

—Synonyms 13. See odor.

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

smell Audio Help   (směl) Pronunciation Key
v.   smelled or smelt (smělt), smell·ing, smells

v.   tr.

To perceive the scent of (something) by means of the olfactory nerves.
To sense the presence of by or as if by the olfactory nerves; detect or discover: We smelled trouble ahead. The committee tried to smell out corruption in law enforcement.

v. intr.

To use the sense of smell; perceive the scent of something.
To have or emit an odor: "The breeze smelled exactly like Vouvray—flowery, with a hint of mothballs underneath" (Anne Tyler).
To be suggestive; have a touch of something: a cave that smells of terror.
To have or emit an unpleasant odor; stink: This closet smells.
To appear to be dishonest; suggest evil or corruption.

The sense by which odors are perceived; the olfactory sense.
That quality of something that may be perceived by the olfactory sense.
The act or an instance of smelling.
A distinctive enveloping or characterizing quality; an aura or trace: the smell of success.

[Middle English smellen.]

Synonyms: These nouns denote a quality that can be perceived by the olfactory sense: the smell of gas; the aroma of frying onions; hospital odors; the scent of pine needles.

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Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
smell a rat

to have a feeling that something is not as it should be; to have suspicions

Arabic:	يَتَشَكَّك، يَرْتاب
Chinese (Simplified):	感到有可疑之处
Chinese (Traditional):	感到有可疑之處
Czech:	větřit něco
Danish:	fatte mistanke
Dutch:	lont ruiken
Estonian:	paha aimama
Finnish:	haistaa palaneen käryä
French:	soupçonner qqch.
German:	Lunte riechen
Greek:	μυρίζομαι βρομοδουλειά
Hungarian:	valami gyanúsat sejt
Icelandic:	gruna að brögð séu í tafli
Indonesian:	curiga
Italian:	(fiutare un imbroglio)

Japanese:	怪しいと思う
Latvian:	nojaust ko nelabu
Lithuanian:	jausti, kad kažkas ne taip
Norwegian:	lukte lunta, ane uråd
Polish:	podejrzewać coś, zwąchać pismo nosem
Portuguese (Brazil):	suspeitar
Portuguese (Portugal):	desconfiar
Romanian:	a mirosi, *a bănui ceva
Russian:	чуять недоброе
Slovak:	cítiť, tušiť (čo)
Slovenian:	vohati prevaro
Spanish:	haber gato encerrado
Swedish:	ana oråd (ugglor i mossen)
Turkish:	kuşkulanmak