Word.ws English Dictionary

smelled a rat

smelled a rat is the simple past and past participle of smell a rat.

Meaning of smell a rat

Verb

smell a rat (third-person singular simple present smells a rat, present participle smelling a rat, simple past and past participle smelt a rat or smelled a rat)

  1. (idiomatic) To sense something suspicious.
    • Oh, Are you thereabouts, Sir; then I ſmell a Rat Ifaith; but I'll ſay nothing.1667 (revival performance), John Dryden, The Wild Gallant: A Comedy. […], In the Savoy [London]: […] T[homas] Newcomb for H[enry] Herringman, […], published 1669, →OCLC, Act IV, page 45

Forms of smelled a rat

alternative formsmelt a rat

Questions about smelled a rat

What is smelled a rat the simple past and past participle of?
Smelled a rat is the simple past and past participle of smell a rat.

Words near smelled a rat in the dictionary

  1. smell-o-vision
  2. smell-smock
  3. smell-smocks
  4. smellable
  5. smelled
  6. smelled a rat
  7. smelled blood
  8. smelled like a rose
  9. smelled like a tart's bedroom
  10. smelled like a tart's boudoir
  11. smelled like a tart's handbag

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: smelled a rat (page history and authors); smell a rat (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “smelled a rat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/smelled_a_rat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.