It's an idiom. "this smells off" -> nonspecific indication that something might ...

		JTbane on Aug 29, 2019 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: Is Perl 6 Being Renamed? It's an idiom. "this smells off" -> nonspecific indication that something might be wrong "code smell" -> nonspecific indication that something might be wrong with software code "thought smell" -> nonspecific indication that something might be wrong with a way of thinking