From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsmell something ↔ out phrasal verb1 SMELLto find something by smelling SYN sniff out They use dogs trained to smell out explosives.2 informalFIND to find or recognize something because you have a natural ability to do this SYN sniff out They’ll be able to smell out any corruption. → smell→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
smell out• He cut it up lengthways and its tangy smell flooded out.• Will the mountain lion smell me out?• You never get the smell of smoke out.• A damp, musty smell lurched out to greet him.• Hoomey knocked on the door and looked through the letter-box, and the smell came out to him. 