to reek of
48
6.3
- phrasal verb
- /rik ʌv/
:
apestar a
- The air in the old cellar reeks of mildew and dampness.
And they said it had cloven feet and it reeked of sulfur.
- And they said it had cloven feet and it reeked of sulfur.
- The problem with each of these solutions is that they're legally questionable and reek of desperation.
- The tower rooms reeked of dragon, but there was no dragon and no treasure.
- What they do is pay lip service to the vagaries of a of a pretentious mission statement, which simply reeks of hypocrisy.
- And all of this just reeks of the patriarchy clinging on to the advances that women have made in these last decades.
- I mean, this just reeks of toxic employer.
- We put Cologne in a couple of you, just you just reeking of cool water Cologne.
- That to me just just reeked of disruption and yet it hasn't happened.
- And the smell of the oil of lilac would actually people would wonder what why is the lab reeking of that smell?
- It's sort of reeks of this unworthiness energy, you know, just checking in to see how you're doing.
Examples
-
The drawing room reeks of smoke.
-
The kitchen had begun to reek of rot and mold.
Fiction book (1997) -
Because it reeks of murder.
-
The cool morning breeze brought him the reek of human waste well before he got to the site.
Fiction book (1998) -
His breath, his clothes, even his hair, all reeked of cigarette smoke.
Fiction book (1993) -
But you said this prosecution reeks of desperation and bad faith.
-
Red is vulgar, and it reeks of lechery.
-
The living room reeks of pot, but I can't find the roach.
Fiction book (1993) -
The response has to reek of competence, integrity and sincerity.
-
Lineage was dangerous, reeks of privilege, of scorn.
Synonyms
862
1.0
To give off a scent that is pleasant or bad
165
1.0
To have a very bad smell
33
5.9
Give off a strong unpleasant smell like smoke
How Indicative
48
6.3
∞
2.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
reek + of
The verb 'reek' already means to give off a strong, unpleasant odor and the preposition 'of' indicates the source or quality being emitted, so 'reek of X' is directly interpretable as 'emit/strongly smell of X'. The same source/association logic (literal and metaphorical uses like 'reek of corruption') is cross-linguistically common, making the construction predictable for learners who know the constituents.
Etymology
Reek of comes from the word reek, which means a very strong and bad 'smell', so imagine a room so full of the smell that it seems to come from everything. That's why when we say something reeks of dishonesty, we mean it is clearly 'full of' that bad quality.