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
   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

Other Words From

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

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of stink¹

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

Idioms and Phrases

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

Example Sentences

“It would be a hell of a stink from members of Congress and Senate putting a lot of pressure on the president, particularly given what Trump has said is his agenda,” Garamendi said.

From Los Angeles Times

That controversy had hardly begun to stink when a speaker at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally called Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage."

From Salon

“You need to think of yourself as the ground forces, as the army that’s going to be out there,” Posobiec said at one recent session, per The New Yorker, “the eyes and the ears of the Trump campaign, of the Republican Party, that are there on the front line to say, ‘We are going to catch you, and when we catch you we’re going to make a stink about it.’”

From Salon

It was a beautiful drive, until I saw signs hanging from fences and telephone poles that proclaimed: “Keep the sewage in Mexico. Stop the stink!”

From Los Angeles Times

Kjersti Flaa, the Norwegian journalist who made headlines not too long ago after a clip resurfaced of her receiving double-barrelled stink eyes from Blake Lively and Parker Posey during a 2016 interview in which Flaa congratulates Lively on her baby bump, is digging back into her cringe archives to air out another celebrity, Anne Hathaway.

From Salon

Related Words

• stench