Akademik

• НЕТ ДЫМА <-у> БЕЗ ОГНЯ; ДЫМА БЕЗ ОГНЯ НЕ БЫВАЕТ

[saying]

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⇒ there is always a reason why people begin to talk about s.o. or sth. (usu. said when it is believed that rumors, gossip etc have some basis):

- ≈ there is no smoke without fire;

- where there's smoke, there's fire.

     ♦ Со злости он [Передонов] лгал на княгиню несообразные вещи. Рассказывал Рутилову да Володину, что был прежде её любовником... [Рутилов] думал, что без огня дыма не бывает: что-то, думал он, было между Передоновым и княгинею (Сологуб 1). In his anger Peredonov made up absurd stories about the Princess. He told Rutilov and Volodin too that he had formerly been her lover. ...[Rutilov] thought that there is no smoke without fire and that there had been something between Peredonov and the Princess (1a).