Meaning of smell of the shop | Babel Free

Definitions

To indicate too distinctively one's occupation or profession.

dated, idiomatic

Examples

“They may purchase estates, and become squires, and marry women "of condition;" but the way in which their money was acquired must exclude at least that generation. Their money smells of the shop.”

“[…]the acceptance of a consulship is held by the young diplomatic aspirants as an implied engagement to attend to the national trade, to the imminent risk of smelling of the shop”

CEFR level