stink

From Middle English stinken, from Old English stincan, from Proto-Germanic *stinkwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *stengʷ-, *stegʷ- (“to push, thrust, strike”). Cognate with West Frisian stjonke (“to stink”), Dutch stinken (“to stink”), German stinken (“to stink”), Danish stinke (“to stink”), Swedish stinka (“to stink”), Icelandic stökkva (“to spring, leap, jump”).

• enPR: stĭngk, IPA^(key): /stɪŋk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪŋk

stink (third-person singular simple present stinks, present participle stinking, simple past stank or stunk, past participle stunk)

1. (intransitive) To have a strong bad smell.
2. (intransitive, informal) To be greatly inferior; to perform badly.

   That movie stinks. I didn't even stay for the end.

3. (intransitive) To give an impression of dishonesty or untruth.

   Something stinks about the politician's excuses.

4. (transitive) To cause to stink; to affect by a stink.

• (have a strong bad smell): pong, reek
• (be greatly inferior): suck, blow
• (give an impression of dishonesty or untruth): be fishy

• stink up
• stink out
• give out stink

stink (plural stinks)

1. A strong bad smell.
2. (informal) A complaint or objection.

   If you don't make a stink about the problem, nothing will be done.

3. (slang, New Zealand) A failure or unfortunate event.

   The concert was stink.

• (strong bad smell): fetor, odour/odor, pong, reek, smell, stench
• (informal: complaint or objection):
• (slang: chemistry):

stink (comparative more stink, superlative most stink)

1. (Caribbean, Guyana) Bad-smelling, stinky[1].
   • 2013, Stabroek News, 19 February 2013, cited by Deborah Jan Osman Backer in a speech delivered in the National Assembly during the Budget Debate, 2013,

     Everyone is up in arms but it smells stink because it smells of racism…

   • 2014, Taureef Mohammed, “Imam recounts 55-day Venezuelan horror,” Trinidad and Tobago Guardian, 26 May, 2014,

     Spending hours in a “stink" morgue, being called “Taliban”, thinking of getting shot in the head by officers—memories of Venezuela that have left Hamza Mohammed, imam of the Montrose mosque, still trembling today.

   • 2016, Kei Miller, Augustown, New York: Pantheon, Chapter 1, p. 5,

     […] what Ma Taffy smells on this early afternoon makes her sit up straight. She smells it high and ripe and stink on the air, like a bright green jackfruit in season being pulled to the rocky ground below.

• knits, sinkt, skint, tinks

From Dutch stinken, from Middle Dutch stinken, from Old Dutch stincan, from Proto-Germanic *stinkwaną.

stink (present stink, present participle stinkende, past participle gestink)

1. to stink

• IPA^(key): /stɪŋk/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: stink
• Rhymes: -ɪŋk

stink

1. first-person singular present indicative of stinken
2. imperative of stinken

• snikt

stink

1. Alternative form of stynk

stink

1. imperative of stinka