Idiom
sniff test
Meaning
An informal check of an idea or proposal, using one's common sense or sense of propriety.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“That plan does not pass the sniff test.”
“Before we present this budget to the board, let's run it through a quick sniff test to see if the numbers make sense.”
“The proposal sounded impressive at first, but it failed the sniff test once the committee examined the underlying assumptions and lack of evidence.”
Examples
simple
“That plan does not pass the sniff test.”
contextual
“Before we present this budget to the board, let's run it through a quick sniff test to see if the numbers make sense.”
complex
“The proposal sounded impressive at first, but it failed the sniff test once the committee examined the underlying assumptions and lack of evidence.”
Origin
The figurative sense is a metaphorical extension from the literal sense.
Key words
Related idioms
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