sniff out

1. 1.

   recognize or detect by or as if by smelling

   “He can smell out trouble”

   Synonymsscent outsmell outnose out

Questions about sniff out

What does sniff out mean?

sniff out means "recognize or detect by or as if by smelling".

What is another word for sniff out?

Close synonyms include scent out, smell out, nose out. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is sniff out a common word?

sniff out is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.