come out smelling like a rose

Meaning: To avoid blame that one deserves; to seem innocent.

Language: English

Literally: (Already vivid in English)

Category: Daily Life

More idioms — Daily Life

• cool one's heels — To wait.
• cornered — Trapped with no means of escape.
• cream of the crop — The best.
• cross one's fingers — To hope for luck.
• cry uncle — To admit defeat.
• cut and dried — Routine (sentence 1) or clear and unequivocal (sentence 2).

More English idioms

• cut corners — To do things poorly or incompletely in order to save money.
• cut someone to the quick — To hurt or wound someone deeply.
• damn someone with faint praise — To criticize in such a way that one appears to be praising when in fact one is condemning…
• dawn on someone — To realize something that was perhaps already apparent to others.
• someone's days are numbered — There is only a short time before something ends.
• dead to the world — Fast asleep.

← Back to Idioms

Loading the full interactive collection…