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Wiktionary

stink

English

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Etymology

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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”).

Pronunciation

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  • enPR: stĭngk, IPA(key): /stɪŋk/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪŋk

Verb

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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, stative, informal) To be greatly inferior; to perform badly.
    That movie stinks. I didn't even stay for the end.
    • 1951, J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 24:
      They gave me Out of Africa, by Isak Dinesen. I thought it was going to stink, but it didn't. It was a very good book.
    • 2003, Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code, Doubleday, →ISBN, page 19:
      My French stinks, Langdon thought, but my zodiac iconography is pretty good. Taurus was always the bull. Astrology was a symbolic constant all over the world.
    • 2008 January–February, “70 Ways to Improve Every Day of the Week”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 1, →ISSN, page 135:
      Improve your golf swing by taking your mate to the driving range. If you're good, you can show off and give her some tips. If you stink, play it for laughs.
  3. (intransitive) To give an impression of dishonesty, untruth, or sin.
    Something stinks about the politician's excuses.
    • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
      The parish stank of idolatry, abominable rites were practiced in secret, and in all the bounds there was no one had a more evil name for the black traffic than one Alison Sempill, who bode at the Skerburnfoot.
  4. (transitive) To cause to stink; to affect by a stink.

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Noun

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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.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Adjective

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stink (comparative more stink, superlative most stink)

  1. (slang, New Zealand) Bad; inferior; worthless.
    The concert was stink. / That was a stink concert.
  2. (Caribbean, Guyana, Jamaica) 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,[1]
      Everyone is up in arms but it smells stink because it smells of racism…
    • 2014 May 26, Taureef Mohammed, “Imam recounts 55-day Venezuelan horror”, in Trinidad and Tobago Guardian:
      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.

References

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  1. ^ Lise Winer (editor), Dictionary of the English/Creole of Trinidad & Tobago: On Historical Principles, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2008, p. 854

Anagrams

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Afrikaans

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Etymology

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

Verb

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

  1. to stink

Dutch

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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stink

  1. inflection of stinken:
    1. first-person singular present indicative
    2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
    3. imperative

Anagrams

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Middle English

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Noun

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stink

  1. Alternative form of stynk

Swedish

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Verb

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stink

  1. imperative of stinka
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