mephitis

[ muh-fahy-tis ]

/ məˈfaɪ tɪs /

(in nontechnical use) a noxious or pestilential exhalation from the earth, as poison gas.

any noisome or poisonous stench.

Nearby words

1700–10; < Latin mephītis, mefītis; compare Oscan Mefit(eí) the goddess of such exhalations

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Yet mephitis has the air of seeming rather to like, than to seek to avoid, mankind.
Belford's Magazine, Vol II, No. 10, March 1889|Various
A skunk, (mephitis Americana,) which was killed in the afternoon, made a supper for one of the messes.
The Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, Oregon and California|Brevet Col. J.C. Fremont
The small mandibular ramus of a musteline referred by Dr. Roth to Mephitis suffocans, does not pertain to this genus and species.
Through the Heart of Patagonia|H. Hesketh Prichard
Mephitis is, however, purely American wherever he comes from.
Belford's Magazine, Vol II, No. 10, March 1889|Various

"Mephitis," I gasped, and instantly put several feet more between us.
Little Brothers of the Air|Olive Thorne Miller

[ mə-fī′tĭs ]

An offensive smell; a stench.

A poisonous or foul-smelling gas emitted from the earth.