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smell a fox

phrase

Definitions

  1. To be suspicious of deception.

    • Lang.: A ghost ? Where, my lord ?—I smell a fox.
    • Aſter the Porcupine had liſtened a while to his deceitful Arguments, he made this Reply to the enſnaring Beguiler, Methinks I ſmell a Fox, keep at a Diſtance; your eloquent Flouriſhes have made no Impreſſions upon me.
    • […]when, hearing a little titter in the neighbouring ſchool room, he began to ſmell a fox, and dreſſing him-ſelf again, with a malignant determination of better note for the future […]

The neighborhood

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sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA