stinker
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈstɪŋ.kə(ɹ)/
ipa: /ˈstɪŋ.kɚ/
rhymes: -ɪŋkə(ɹ)
Forms: form: stinkers
Etymology: From stink + -er.
Senses: examples: text: Skunks are the worst stinkers in the animal kingdom.
glosses: One who stinks.
examples: text: "Stop squallin', you little stinker!" She struck the child with her open hand across the face.
ref: 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:
text: "But it's far worse for me," said Edmund, "because you'll at least have a room of your own and I shall have to share a bedroom with that record stinker, Eustace."
ref: 1952, C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader:
text: Never be a stinker, because if you are, though you may flourish for a time like a green bay tree, sooner or later retribution will overtake you.
ref: 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter II, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:
text: When you are colonized by dangerous bacteria their presence in your body does no damage. You become a reservoir for those little stinkers.
ref: 2011, Steven Z. Kussin, Doctor, Your Patient Will See You Now, page 241:
glosses: A contemptible person or thing.
examples: text: Today's crossword is a stinker.
text: I number several authors among my acquaintance […] and they invariably become all of a doodah when they read a stinker in the press about their latest effort.
ref: 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter V, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:
text: I sat there seething with fury. And after I had seethed for a bit I rose from my chair, took pen in hand and wrote Bobbie a stinker. […] I accused her in set terms of giving me the heave-ho in order that she could mercenarily marry a richer man. I called her a carrot-topped Jezebel whom I was thankful to have got out of my hair. I... Oh, I can't remember what else I said but, as I say, it was a stinker.
ref: 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter X, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:
glosses: Something difficult (e.g. a given puzzle) or unpleasant (e.g. negative review, nasty letter).
examples: text: The barely-released stinker Dark Tide continues Stockwell’s fetishistic pattern, coming alive whenever it’s paddling among the sharks off the South African coast and settling in for a long snooze once it gets back on the boat or reaches dry land.
ref: 2002 April 19, Scott Tobias, “Dark Tide”, in AV Club:
text: Steven Pinker, Rational Thinker: His new book is a stinker. [title]
ref: 2021 September 30, Ted McCormick, “Steven Pinker, Rational Thinker”, in Slate:
text: Now it’s over, let’s come out and say it: The Rings of Power was a stinker [title]
ref: 2022 October 17, Stuart Heritage, “Now it’s over, let’s come out and say it: The Rings of Power was a stinker”, in The Guardian:
glosses: Something of poor quality.
glosses: Any of several species of large Antarctic petrels which feed on blubber and carrion and have an offensive odour, such as the giant fulmar.
glosses: A chemist.
synonyms: scorcher
stinker
glosses: A hot day.
glosses: A black eye.
glosses: A western grey kangaroo.
glosses: A giant petrel.
Synonyms: sense: a person who stinks
word: stinkard
sense: a contemptible person
word: creep
sense: a contemptible person
word: rotter
sense: a contemptible person
word: scoundrel
sense: a contemptible person
word: stinkard
sense: something difficult or unpleasant
word: hatchet job
sense: something difficult or unpleasant
word: nastygram
sense: something of poor quality
word: clunker
Derived terms: topics: fish
ichthyology
zoology
biology
natural-sciences
word: wanker
Related terms: stink
stinker-upper