smell a rat
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Suspect that something is wrong or deceitful
Literally: detect a rodent
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Alistair couldn't resist asking, ‘ Didn't Miranda smell a rat?’
I smell a rat here — I really do.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “smell a rat” mean?
Suspect that something is wrong or deceitful Literally: detect a rodent
Is “smell a rat” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.