stink

Meanings

Verb

• To have a strong bad smell.
• To be greatly inferior; to perform badly.
• To give an impression of dishonesty, untruth, or sin.
• To cause to stink; to affect by a stink.

Noun

• A strong bad smell.
• A complaint or objection.

Adjective

• Bad; inferior; worthless.
• Bad-smelling, stinky.

Related

Similar words

• pong, reek
• suck, blow
• be fishy
• fetor, odour/odor, pong, reek, smell, stench

Origin

• From Middle English stynken, from Old English stincan, from Proto-Germanic *stinkwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *stengʷ-, *stegʷ-. 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").