to smell a rat = to suspect that something is wrong
All the documents were in order, still I smelled a rat.
to smell fishy = to seem suspicious
Something about this deal seems fishy. Why don’t we check all the details again?
to stink to high heaven = to have a very strong smell or to be very wrong
The room we were given was tiny, old, and stank to high heaven.
Wake up and smell the coffee! = pay attention to what’s going on
Businesses that think they can pay no tax in Britain need to “wake up and smell the coffee”.
to sniff something out = to discover something by looking for it
It wasn’t until some days later that the public sniffed out the scandal.
