sniff\ out

sniff\ out
• ferret out literary
• sniff out
• smell out
v
To hunt or drive from hiding; to bring out into the open; search for and find.

Jane smelled out the boys' secret hiding place in the woods.

John ferreted out the answer to the question in the library.


Словарь американских идиом. — СПб., Изд-во "Лань". . 1997.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • sniff out — (someone/something) to discover someone or something, usually only after a special effort. Part of their job is to sniff out talented new writers. The FBI knew they had a double agent in their midst, but it took years to sniff him out …   New idioms dictionary

  • sniff out — phrasal verb [transitive] Word forms sniff out : present tense I/you/we/they sniff out he/she/it sniffs out present participle sniffing out past tense sniffed out past participle sniffed out 1) to find something through smell This dog sniffed out …   English dictionary

  • sniff out — 1) PHRASAL VERB If you sniff out something, you discover it after some searching. [INFORMAL] [V P n (not pron)] ...journalists who are trained to sniff out sensation or scandal. [V P n (not pron)] ...those who like sniffing out bargains. [Also V… …   English dictionary

  • sniff out — informal McMahon and Romero were sent uptown to sniff out the source of these letters Syn: detect, find, discover, bring to light, track down, dig up, hunt out, ferret out, root out, uncover, unearth …   Thesaurus of popular words

  • sniff out — verb a) To find something using the sense of smell. Because they have far more powerful noses than humans, dogs are ideal to sniff out drugs. b) to find, especially to find something that cannot be seen …   Wiktionary

  • sniff out someone — sniff out (someone/something) to discover someone or something, usually only after a special effort. Part of their job is to sniff out talented new writers. The FBI knew they had a double agent in their midst, but it took years to sniff him out …   New idioms dictionary

  • sniff out something — sniff out (someone/something) to discover someone or something, usually only after a special effort. Part of their job is to sniff out talented new writers. The FBI knew they had a double agent in their midst, but it took years to sniff him out …   New idioms dictionary

  • sniff out —    to kill    Perhaps a corruption of snuff (out), because it means literally no more than to detect:     ... before some busybody at the top sniffs out Sniffers. (Manning, 1977, writing about a killing not a detection)    To take a long (deep)… …   How not to say what you mean: A dictionary of euphemisms

  • sniff out — Synonyms and related words: be warm, burn, follow, follow a clue, follow up, get wind of, hunt down, nose, nose out, run down, run to earth, scent, shadow, smell, smell out, sniff, stalk, tail, trace, trace down, track, track down, trail …   Moby Thesaurus

  • sniff out — verb recognize or detect by or as if by smelling He can smell out trouble • Syn: ↑scent out, ↑smell out, ↑nose out • Entailment: ↑smell • Verb Frames: Some …   Useful english dictionary

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