i look for a site to explain meaning of english proverbs, espcially this one: "there is no smoke without fire"

Question

i study in english and our teacher asked us to find the meaning of this proverb:there is no smoke without fire. but i can't find a good source on net, can u help me find a site that help me to do this homework?

Answer 1

The phrase is, "where there's smoke, there's fire."
Meaning:
"If it looks like something is wrong, something probably is wrong."
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/where+there's+smoke,+there's+fire

Answer 2

Basically it means, there is no by-product without the root cause, or there is no observable behavior without an emotion or motivation driving it.

Think about it - when you are a distance away, all you really see is the smoke from a fire, and not the fire itself. So this relates to the observable behavior. You need to find the "fire," or the motivation/emotion, to understand the "smoke," or what you are seeing.

Answer 3

Don't ignore the warning signals. Don't look at evidence of trouble and sweep it under the rug. If you ignore the smoke, it will erupt into a very destructive fire. If you engage in wishful thinking, and assume problems will go away, it will cost you.

Answer 4

False