smell a rat
Pronunciation Verb
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Pronunciation Verb
smell a rat
- (idiomatic) To sense something suspicious.
- 1663 February 5 (first performance), John Dryden, The Wild Gallant: A Comedy. As It was Acted at the Theater-Royal, by His Majesties Servants, [London,] in the Savoy: Printed by Tho[mas] Newcomb, for H[enry] Herringman, at the Blew-Anchor, in the Lower-Walk of the New-Exchange, 1669, OCLC 4473371, Act IV, scene i, page 45 ↗:
- Oh, Are you thereabouts, Sir; then I ſmell a Rat Ifaith; but I'll ſay nothing.
- 1873 July 19 – 1874 January 10, Anthony Trollope, “The Prime Minister is Hard Pressed”, in Phineas Redux, London; New York, N.Y.: George Routledge and Sons, December 1874, OCLC 38672532, page 335 ↗:
- Mr. Gresham, when he heard this, thought that he began to smell a rat, and was determined to be on his guard.
- 1663 February 5 (first performance), John Dryden, The Wild Gallant: A Comedy. As It was Acted at the Theater-Royal, by His Majesties Servants, [London,] in the Savoy: Printed by Tho[mas] Newcomb, for H[enry] Herringman, at the Blew-Anchor, in the Lower-Walk of the New-Exchange, 1669, OCLC 4473371, Act IV, scene i, page 45 ↗:
- French: y avoir anguille sous roche (there’s an eel under the rock )
- German: etwas kommt jemandem spanisch vor
- Italian: gatta ci cova (the cat is hiding something), mangiare la foglia, farsi furbo, sentire puzza di bruciato
- Spanish: oler a gato encerrado, haber gato encerrado, olerse la tostada
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.004