idioms using “smoke”

Smoke out

To entice someone out of hiding by tricking him/her.

“The investigators smoked out the man selling his company’s secrets by pretending to want to buy it from him.”

Go up in smoke

To be ruined or wasted

“Thirty years of my father’s life went up in smoke when his company filed bankruptcy.”

Blow smoke

To make something seem better than it is

“Honda-san isn’t just blowing smoke; the team really did perform as well as he said they did.”

Smoke and mirrors

Deceptive actions

“All of the company’s efforts to promote environmentalism were just smoke and mirrors to hide the fact that they were being sued for polluting the rivers with chemical waste.”

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire

When some appears to be wrong, it probably is wrong

“The auditors have found a few inconsistencies in the company’s accounting so they have to investigate further; where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”