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View synonyms for stink

stink

[ stingk ]

verb (used without object)

, stank [stangk] or, often, stunk [stuhngk]; stunk; stink·ing.
  1. to emit a strong offensive smell.

    Synonyms: reek

  2. to be offensive to honesty or propriety; to be in extremely bad repute or disfavor.
  3. Informal. to be disgustingly inferior:

    That book stinks.

  4. Slang. to have a large quantity of something (usually followed by of or with ):

    They stink of money. She stinks with jewelry.



verb (used with object)

, stank [stangk] or, often, stunk [stuhngk]; stunk; stink·ing.
  1. to cause to stink or be otherwise offensive (often followed by up ):

    an amateurish performance that really stank up the stage.

noun

  1. a strong offensive smell; stench.
  2. Informal. an unpleasant fuss; scandal:

    There was a big stink about his accepting a bribe.

  3. stinks, (used with a singular verb) British Slang. chemistry as a course of study.

verb phrase

  1. to repel or drive out by means of a highly offensive smell.

stink

/ stɪŋk /

noun

  1. a strong foul smell; stench
  2. slang.
    a great deal of trouble (esp in the phrase to make or raise a stink )
  3. like stink
    like stink intensely; furiously


verb

  1. to emit a foul smell
  2. slang.
    to be thoroughly bad or abhorrent

    this town stinks

  3. informal.
    to have a very bad reputation

    his name stinks

  4. to be of poor quality
  5. slang.
    foll byof or with to have or appear to have an excessive amount (of money)
  6. informal.
    trusually foll byup to cause to stink

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Other Words From

  • outstink verb (used with object) outstank or, often, outstunk outstunk outstinking

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Word History and Origins

Origin of stink1

First recorded before 900; (verb) Middle English stinken, Old English stincan; (noun) Middle English, derivative of the verb; cognate with German stinken (verb); stench

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Word History and Origins

Origin of stink1

Old English stincan; related to Old Saxon stinkan, German stinken, Old Norse stökkva to burst; see stench

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Idioms and Phrases

In addition to the idiom beginning with stink , also see big stink ; make a stink ; smell (stink) up .

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Example Sentences

Thus, an Egyptian pharaoh’s first duty was to erase the social and physical stink of isfet and institute the sweet smell of ma’at, Goldsmith contends.

This never worked quite right—we’re all familiar with the public bathroom aroma of powerfully perfumed cleaning agents trying to overpower an undertone of residual stink.

Apocrine glands become active at puberty and are primarily responsible for turning armpits into stink zones from adolescence onward.

From Time

Extended stays in a damp petri-dish pile of clothes, not the initial exposure to sweat on your ride, is what leads to persistent stink over time.

People first gave me the stink eye in London as I was American, but I got more of that in Puerto Rico from expat Americans.

From Ozy

And yet, this will be the media frame: “Obama throws stink bomb.”

Shortly after his confession, Vision Forum Ministries closed up shop, unable to continue with the stink of sex scandal upon them.

Hilton danced in a corner by herself while her then-boyfriend, shipping heir Stavros Niarchos, gave her the stink eye.

As you get older, the more you think, the more you stink, really.

Intellectual shut-ins are a dime a dozen these days, and they all stink just as bad as the next one.

Their slain shall be cast forth, and out of their carcasses shall rise a stink: the mountains shall be melted with their blood.

Alan would take the spinning pass and bound forward into the stink-stained Modern juniors or embryo subalterns of Army C.

Get the stink blown off you—forget some terrible things that had happened to you.

Fresh fish and unwelcome friends stink before they're three days auld.

Proverb: When fish has gone bad ten thousand decent men can't take away the stink.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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