I smell a rat
2018.08.29
Meaning:
Sometimes we cannot trust a situation or a person, but we don’t have evidence. For example, imagine you are a married woman. Your husband comes home smelling like a woman’s perfume… Maybe you think – ‘Hmmm… I think he kissed another woman tonight’, but you are not sure. In that case, you can say ‘I smell a rat’. ‘to smell a rat’ means ‘to think that someone is lying to you’. This expression comes from when rats die behind walls in a house; you can smell something bad (ie you know something is wrong), but it is very difficult to find the dead rat (ie find the truth).
Example:
A: Did you see Susan today? She was sick yesterday, right?
B: She says she was sick, but I smell a rat…
A: What do you mean?
B: She’s got a new suntan… I think she went to the beach…
Talking Point(s):
If your partner bought you flowers, would you be happy? Or would you smell a rat?
大人からの英会話getgo 西船橋・荻窪・津田沼・本八幡