STINK (stank, stunk)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: stank    , stunk   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does stink mean? 

• STINK (noun)
  The noun STINK has 1 sense:

1. a distinctive odor that is offensively unpleasant

  Familiarity information: STINK used as a noun is very rare.

• STINK (verb)
  The verb STINK has 2 senses:

1. be extremely bad in quality or in one's performance

2. smell badly and offensively

  Familiarity information: STINK used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• STINK (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A distinctive odor that is offensively unpleasant

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

fetor; foetor; malodor; malodour; mephitis; reek; stench; stink

Hypernyms ("stink" is a kind of...):

odor; odour; olfactory perception; olfactory sensation; smell (the sensation that results when olfactory receptors in the nose are stimulated by particular chemicals in gaseous form)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "stink"):

niff; pong (an unpleasant smell)

Derivation:

stink (smell badly and offensively)

stinky (having an unpleasant smell)

• STINK (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they stink    ... he / she / it stinks   
Past simple: stank   
Past participle: stunk   
-ing form: stinking   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be extremely bad in quality or in one's performance

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Context example:

This term paper stinks!

Hypernyms (to "stink" is one way to...):

be (have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun))

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Derivation:

stinker (an artifact (especially an automobile) that is defective or unsatisfactory)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Smell badly and offensively

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Synonyms:

reek; stink

Context example:

The building reeks of smoke

Hypernyms (to "stink" is one way to...):

smell (smell bad)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Also:

stink out; stink up (cause to smell bad; fill with a bad smell)

Derivation:

stink (a distinctive odor that is offensively unpleasant)

stinker (anything that gives off an offensive odor (especially a cheap cigar))

 Context examples 

I observed the young animal’s flesh to smell very rank, and the stink was somewhat between a weasel and a fox, but much more disagreeable.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

We told the man we could and would make such a scandal out of this as should make his name stink from one end of London to the other.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I rigged up a contraption to hold off those stinking beasts, and I spent a happy day there with a spud.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And if you’ve money, my son, and know how to handle it and spread it, you can do anything! Now, you don’t think it likely that a man who could do anything is going to wear his breeches out sitting in the stinking hold of a rat-gutted, beetle-ridden, mouldy old coffin of a China coaster.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I went into another chamber, but was ready to hasten back, being almost overcome with a horrible stink.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)