From that time forward I began to smellthe Word of God, and forsook
the school doctors.
Latimer.
To smell a rat, to have a sense of something wrong, not clearly
evident; to have reason for suspicion. [Colloq.] -- To smell out, to
find out by sagacity. [Colloq.]
Smell, v. i. 1. To affect the olfactory nerves; to have an odor or
scent; -- often followed by of; as, to smell of smoke, or of musk.
2. To have a particular tincture or smack of any quality; to savor; as,
a report smells of calumny.
Praises in an enemy are superfluous, or smell of craft.
Milton.