"smell a fox" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "smell a fox .",
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        "canonical"
      ]
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  ],
  "head_templates": [
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        "head": "smell a fox."
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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          "source": "w"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1611, The Atheist's Tragedy, page 316",
          "text": "Lang.: A ghost ? Where, my lord ?—I smell a fox.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1754, Aesop's Fables: with his life, and morals and remarks. Fitted for the meanest capacities., page 24",
          "text": "Aſter the Porcupine had liſtened a while to his deceitful Arguments, he made this Reply to the enſnaring Beguiler, Methinks I ſmell a Fox, keep at a Diſtance; your eloquent Flouriſhes have made no Impreſſions upon me.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1766, The fool of quality; or, the history of Henry Earl of Moreland. By Mr. Brooke. A new edition, greatly altered and improved., page 183",
          "text": "[…]when, hearing a little titter in the neighbouring ſchool room, he began to ſmell a fox, and dreſſing him-ſelf again, with a malignant determination of better note for the future […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be suspicious of deception."
      ],
      "id": "en-smell_a_fox-en-phrase-rzsUkxq4",
      "links": [
        [
          "suspicious",
          "suspicious"
        ],
        [
          "deception",
          "deception"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(obsolete) To be suspicious of deception."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "smell a rat"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "obsolete"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "smell a fox"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "smell a fox .",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
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        "head": "smell a fox."
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
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        "English lemmas",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1611, The Atheist's Tragedy, page 316",
          "text": "Lang.: A ghost ? Where, my lord ?—I smell a fox.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1754, Aesop's Fables: with his life, and morals and remarks. Fitted for the meanest capacities., page 24",
          "text": "Aſter the Porcupine had liſtened a while to his deceitful Arguments, he made this Reply to the enſnaring Beguiler, Methinks I ſmell a Fox, keep at a Diſtance; your eloquent Flouriſhes have made no Impreſſions upon me.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1766, The fool of quality; or, the history of Henry Earl of Moreland. By Mr. Brooke. A new edition, greatly altered and improved., page 183",
          "text": "[…]when, hearing a little titter in the neighbouring ſchool room, he began to ſmell a fox, and dreſſing him-ſelf again, with a malignant determination of better note for the future […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be suspicious of deception."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "suspicious",
          "suspicious"
        ],
        [
          "deception",
          "deception"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(obsolete) To be suspicious of deception."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "smell a rat"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "obsolete"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "smell a fox"
}