smell wrong informal
smell fishy
smell odd

What he did know was this: something about the situation smelled wrong.

You said it yourself-anyone not from Earth would smell wrong.

Most alarming, though, was that the people smelled wrong.

If the children smelled wrong to their protector forefathers, they were killed.

But he knew one was wrong because he smelled wrong.

But he did not only look wrong, he smelled wrong.

"I just operate with a sense of smell: if something smells wrong, I go to work."

She acts as if I'm no different than the day she found me, and that smells wrong, too."

That was what this felt like-it was so right it smelled wrong.

"Something about this smells wrong to me," said Goth.

Humans will smell wrong; this is established as important to kzinti.

A protector might kill any breeder who smelled wrong, to leave more space for her own breeders.

I dare say your hands smell wrong.

Very likely the Myrddraal smelled wrong to the birds.

Ever since the results of that election were announced, union reformers have been protesting that the numbers smelled wrong.

Everything about it looked wrong, smelled wrong, leaned wrong.

"Of course, if they smell wrong, or behave wrong."

"We know what smells right and what smells wrong."

Even a good change smells wrong.

She never went into estrus and she smelled wrong so he had never desired her.

They smelled wrong, unlike the original arrivals.

Just as Drake had smelled wrong.

It just felt wrong and it smelled wrong.

Even the air smelled wrong.

The air smelled wrong: damp ash and wood-smoke.

The ocean was the color of rain, and the wind smelled fishy.

For a guy with his sensitive nose, it would have smelled fishy.

That may not have been Apple's intention, but it smells fishy.

You know, this one smelled fishy from the beginning.

If his side of the story smells fishy, nail him."

But the terms of that recovery smelled fishy to him, and he didn't mind saying so.

"Residents of Massachusetts are used to spending time near the ocean; we know when something smells fishy."

"Sadly, history has shown us that when something smells fishy it usually turns out to be rotten."

If the fish smells fishy, they say, skip it.

Something was wrong; something smelled fishy to the chief.

She thinks the whole thing smells fishy, too.

It all smells fishier than a barrel of stale salt-herring.

The boy took one look at her, declared that she smelled fishy, and wouldn't let her in his room.

It stretched for hundreds of meters (yards) alongside a highway, and smelled fishy.

"This all smells fishy to me, Jim," he complained.

But it wasn't the same as "He smells fishy," it was specific.

"You ask me," said her mother, "he smells fishy.

And it should not smell fishy.

Some smell fishy, others like rotten meat.

A group of nitrogen-based compounds known as amines, in their simpler forms, smell fishy.

"I don't know what, but something smells fishy."

He thinks it smells fishy and he wants to get to the bottom of it."

Something smells fishy about that.

It smells fishy in here!

The room was very dark, the bed felt strange and the place smelled odd.

It was a short, stocky man who smelled odd.

It certainly smelled odd and, he admitted, tasted worse.

He smelled odd right from the start.

"This lobby smells odd," I noted to my friend as we sipped tea at the intermission.

The situation smelled odd to him.

The woman even smelled odd as she passed Keffria, to say nothing of her strange coloring.

While not putrid, he said, "It smells odd."

It smelled odd, but definitely alcoholic.

It was drying, but it smelled odd.

The room smelled odd, and the décor reminded him of displays he'd seen at the museum of ancient African art.

"This thing smells odd, Maiden," he told Maggie.

"It smells very good," Catania said, though it smelled odd, likely from the cheese.

Didn't it smell odd?

"It smells odd and tastes odd."

Strong-armed members of the ship's crew manually unscrewed the hatch; outside air eddied in, smelling odd and cold.

It was a strange thing to be expecting, as strange as thinking the air would smell odd, even though it didn't.

This is the sort of thing one has to seek out on Amazon, which in fact I did, rather than go out and mingle with actual people, who occasionally can smell odd or ask embarrassing questions!

I thought the senior home smelled odd, so I left, and though the Y.M.C.A. was a perfect fit, I could have used nudging to continue - nudging the university might have provided.

Note to self: Don't run out of valerian Valerian officinalis is an herb with a distinctive odor that few appreciate it's been likened to old gym socks but to me, it just smells odd and earthy.

You may think you have brooding banshees or bothersome bogeymen on your hands if you experience the following: see apparitions, hear weird sounds, smell odd odors, feel "cold spots" within a room, notice objects that have been moved or observe your pet acting agitated [source: ASSAP].