Meaning of smell a fox | Babel Free

Definitions

To be suspicious of deception.

obsolete

Examples

“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 […]”

CEFR level