Smell 作為名詞時解作氣味，作動詞時則可解為嗅到或發出氣味。

Smell something/ somewhere up 指令某物件或地方沾有難聞的氣味。例如： I knewMary was around as her perfume hadalready smelled the room up.

Smell 亦指憑直覺察覺到。例如： I couldsmell trouble as he walked to me lookingirritated (煩躁).

Smell a rat 比喻感覺到某人或某事有不妥，雖然一下子不能清楚說出問題何在。例如：The company claims that it made huge profitslast year, but I smell a rat.

不同的「氣味」可用來比喻不同的事態。Smell fishy 用以形容令人懷疑的事物，例如：The report, which claims the company madehuge profits last year, smells fishy to me. 順帶一提，rat 可以指騙子，而fishy 一字本身也可用來形容可疑的人或事。

Come out/up smelling like roses 解作經歷誠信危機後， 聲譽仍然沒有受損。例如： Hecame up smelling like roses despite therumour (傳言) that he was involved in moneylaundering (洗黑錢).

Come up roses 的意思並不相同，解作進入佳境、取得成功。例如： While all hiscolleagues have difficulties achieving thesales target, things are coming up rosesfor Peter. 談到come up roses，不得不提百老匯經典名曲Everything's Coming UpRoses。Everything's coming up roses 現已成為慣用語，意即事事順境。

大家都希望everything's coming uproses，但始終要面對現實中的問題。Wakeup and smell the coffee! 這句慣用語是叫聽者面對現實， 認清處境。例如： Weneed to wake up and smell thecoffee. Our competitors are catching upwith (趕上) us.

來源:明報