stink

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   be extremely bad in quality or in one's performance

   This term paper stinks!

2. 2
   verb

   To be greatly inferior; to perform badly.

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

3. 3
   verb

   To give an impression of dishonesty, untruth, or sin.

   Something stinks about the politician's excuses.

4. 4
   noun

   A strong bad smell.

   “I’m thankful for this beautiful morning!” He points toward the sky. “See that sunrise? Smell that air—” / “That’s stink from the rendering plant.”

5. 5
   noun

   A complaint or objection.

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

6. 6
   adj

   Bad; inferior; worthless.

   The concert was stink. / That was a stink concert.

7. 7
   adj

   Bad-smelling, stinky.

   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…

8. 8
   noun

   a distinctive odor that is offensively unpleasant

Etymology

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”).