smell like a rose

present singular third person smells like a rose · participle present smelling like a rose · participle past smelt like a rose · past smelt like a rose · participle past smelled like a rose · past smelled like a rose · alternative come out smelling like a rose · alternative come out smelling of roses · alternative come up smelling like a rose · alternative come up smelling of roses

1. colloquialidiomaticsimileTo be regarded as appealing, virtuous, or respectable; to be untainted or unharmed.

   come out smelling like a rose

   3 more examples

   "I don't suppose anyone from the director down will come out of this deal smelling like a rose," the warden commented, "but our only hope is that some good will result from the hearing."

   1953 November 22, “Prison is quiet after hearing”, in Spokesman-Review, Spokane, USA, retrieved 04 Aug 2009, page 22

   But compared to others, Dent came out of the Depression "smelling like a rose." He later boasted that he made $18,000 a year with his writing during the Depression.

   1990, Marilyn Cannaday, Bigger than Life: The Creator of Doc Savage, →ISBN, page 28

   The champion of corporate governance should smell like a rose. Instead, there's an unpleasant whiff of pork-barrel politics rising from the board.

   2002 June 24, Christopher Palmeri, “Can CalPERS Afford to Throw Stones?”, in BusinessWeek, retrieved 04 Aug 2009