smell a fox

English

Phrase

smell a fox.

1. (obsolete) To be suspicious of deception.

   Synonym: smell a rat

   • 1611, The Atheist's Tragedy, page 316:

     Lang.: A ghost ? Where, my lord ?—I smell a fox.

   • 1754, Aesop's Fables: with his life, and morals and remarks. Fitted for the meanest capacities., page 24:

     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.

   • 1766, The fool of quality; or, the history of Henry Earl of Moreland. By Mr. Brooke. A new edition, greatly altered and improved., page 183:

     […] 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 […]