Smell 作为名词时解作气味，作动词时则可解为嗅到或发出气味。

Smell something/ somewhere up 指令某对象或地方沾有难闻的气味。例如： I knewMary was around as her perfume hadalready smelled the room up.

Smell 亦指凭直觉察觉到。例如： I couldsmell trouble as he walked to me lookingirritated (烦躁).

Smell a rat 比喻感觉到某人或某事有不妥，虽然一下子不能清楚说出问题何在。例如：The company claims that it made huge profitslast year, but I smell a rat.

不同的「气味」可用来比喻不同的事态。Smell fishy 用以形容令人怀疑的事物，例如：The report, which claims the company madehuge profits last year, smells fishy to me. 顺带一提，rat 可以指骗子，而fishy 一字本身也可用来形容可疑的人或事。

Come out/up smelling like roses 解作经历诚信危机后， 声誉仍然没有受损。例如： Hecame up smelling like roses despite therumour (传言) that he was involved in moneylaundering (洗黑钱).

Come up roses 的意思并不相同，解作进入佳境、取得成功。例如： While all hiscolleagues have difficulties achieving thesales target, things are coming up rosesfor Peter. 谈到come up roses，不得不提百老汇经典名曲Everything's Coming UpRoses。Everything's coming up roses 现已成为惯用语，意即事事顺境。

大家都希望everything's coming uproses，但始终要面对现实中的问题。Wakeup and smell the coffee! 这句惯用语是叫听者面对现实， 认清处境。例如： Weneed to wake up and smell thecoffee. Our competitors are catching upwith (赶上) us.

来源:明报