English · Idiom Candidate

smell of the shop

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

to have a strong connection to a particular job or industry

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Có mối liên hệ mạnh với một công việc hoặc ngành cụ thể

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: the smell of a shop

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

After 20 years, he still has the smell of the shop

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

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 of the shop” mean?

to have a strong connection to a particular job or industry Literally: the smell of a shop

Is “smell of the shop” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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