skunk

American  

[skuhngk] / skʌŋk /

noun

plural

skunks,

plural

skunk

1. a small North American mammal, Mephitis mephitis, of the weasel family, having a black coat with a white, V -shaped stripe on the back, and ejecting a fetid odor when alarmed or attacked.

2. any of several related or similar animals.

3. Informal. a thoroughly contemptible person.

4. U.S. Navy Slang. an unidentified ship or target.

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verb (used with object)

1. Slang. to defeat thoroughly in a game, especially while keeping an opponent from scoring.

   The team skunked the favorites in the crucial game.

skunk British  

/ skʌŋk /

noun

1. any of various American musteline mammals of the subfamily Mephitinae, esp Mephitis mephitis ( striped skunk ), typically having a black and white coat and bushy tail: they eject an unpleasant-smelling fluid from the anal gland when attacked

2. informal a despicable person

3. slang a strain of cannabis smoked for its exceptionally powerful psychoactive properties

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verb

1. slang (tr) to defeat overwhelmingly in a game

Etymology

Origin of skunk

1625–35, < the Massachusett reflex of Proto-Algonquian *šeka·kwa (derivative of *šek- urinate + -a·kw fox, foxlike animal

Example Sentences

Similar to Captain, she was wider than she was tall, like a skunk who’d been squashed beneath the tire of a speeding car.

From Literature

“And who remembers the time the skunk got down the chimbley, and we thought we could smoke him out, and we learned different?”

From Literature

They looked so forlorn that I picked them up and carried them in my cap rather than leaving them for some passing skunk.

From Literature

He said inflation could be one “skunk” — that prices may get stuck around 3% growth annually — but said there are other concerns including the geopolitical threats.

From MarketWatch

I was like a dog that would go fetch Ms. W.’s stick, even if it was in a snake’s hole under a thorn bush that had just been sprayed by a skunk.

From Literature