smell blood
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Sense an opportunity to take advantage of someone
Literally: detect the scent of blood
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Mr Smith, who smelt blood, accused the Government of the biggest tax hike ever and said people would be shocked beyond belief at the cynicism of the Government.
There was a smell inside that made all my senses rear up like a horse that smells blood.
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 blood” mean?
Sense an opportunity to take advantage of someone Literally: detect the scent of blood
Is “smell blood” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.