stink
Americanverb (used without object)
-
stinks,
present (3rd person singular)
-
stunk,
past participle, past
-
stank,
past
-
stinking
present participle
-
to emit a strong offensive smell.
- Synonyms:
- reek
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to be offensive to honesty or propriety; to be in extremely bad repute or disfavor.
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Informal. to be disgustingly inferior.
That book stinks.
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Slang. to have a large quantity of something (usually followed by of orwith ).
They stink of money. She stinks with jewelry.
verb (used with object)
-
stinks,
present (3rd person singular)
-
stunk,
past participle, past
-
stank,
past
-
stinking
present participle
noun
-
stinks
plural
-
a strong offensive smell; stench.
-
Informal. an unpleasant fuss; scandal.
There was a big stink about his accepting a bribe.
-
(used with a singular verb) stinks, chemistry as a course of study.
verb phrase
noun
-
a strong foul smell; stench
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slang a great deal of trouble (esp in the phrase to make or raise a stink )
-
intensely; furiously
verb
-
to emit a foul smell
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slang to be thoroughly bad or abhorrent
this town stinks
-
informal to have a very bad reputation
his name stinks
-
to be of poor quality
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slang to have or appear to have an excessive amount (of money)
-
informal to cause to stink
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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stinksimple
-
stinkssimple
-
have stunkperfect
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has stunkperfect
-
am stinkingprogressive
-
are stinkingprogressive
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is stinkingprogressive
-
have been stinkingperfect progressive
-
has been stinkingperfect progressive
Past
-
stanksimple
-
stunksimple
-
had stunkperfect
-
was stinkingprogressive
-
were stinkingprogressive
-
had been stinkingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of stink
First recorded before 900; (verb) Middle English stinken, Old English stincan; (noun) Middle English, derivative of the verb; cognate with German stinken (verb); cf. stench
Explanation
When things stink, they smell terrible. If you throw food scraps in your kitchen trash can, it will eventually start to stink. You can say that something stinks — your dog's breath, or your brother's feet — and you can call the offensive odor itself a stink. Figuratively, something can stink even if it doesn't literally smell bad: "I'm sorry, but that movie you recommended really stinks. It's awful." The Old English root is stincan, "emit a smell of any kind, or exhale."
Vocabulary lists containing stink
The Nose Knows: Olfactory Vocabulary
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Smell Words
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Words with Two Past-Tense Forms That Creeped (or Crept) into English
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Innuendo leaves a lingering stink that’s harder to dispel.
From Slate ● Jul. 17, 2026
So does it stink that the semiquincentennial has been such a flop?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
Remember what President of the Universe Zlatan Ibrahimovic declared to Rebecca Lowe the other day in between giving TV stink eyes to Alexi Lalas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
Maybe some choose to marvel at this one-in-a-lifetime behemoth stuck in our midst and ignore the stink.
From Salon ● May 14, 2026
“I remember it well. But I hate to tell you, the kids who make seventh grade stink, they don’t disappear in eighth or ninth grade.”
From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz
As the American painter recalled years later, Borger in the 1920s was a settlement of “rough shacks, oil rigs, pungent stinks from gas pockets, and broad-faced, big-boned Texas oil speculators.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
But he said his finish "stinks" after posting a double-bogey for second day running.
From BBC ● Mar. 13, 2026
“The running joke in the community was, ‘The first product stinks, the second one’s better, and the third one’s where they get it right.’
From Barron's ● Mar. 13, 2026
Inside the Justice Department, the resolution was demoralizing: “He’s admitted he owes money, and we get money, but everything else about it stinks to high heaven,” said a current DOJ official familiar with the case.
From Salon ● Jan. 23, 2026
And it stinks like the gym bathrooms that time the sewer backed up.
From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz
"Everything was foggy, you couldn't open the window and it stank," she said, showing a picture on her phone of an orange glow partially obscured by thick smoke clouds that had turned the air black.
From Barron's ● Aug. 17, 2026
He visited Los Angeles in 1926 and declared that “the whole place stank of orange blossoms.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2024
He found a place in Astana in an apartment that stank of cat.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 11, 2024
The whole thing "stank", he said, with it never discovered who planted it.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2023
The room stank of Jordan's suffocating cologne, stifling smoke, and fear.
From "Forged by Fire" by Sharon M. Draper
We didn’t have whales, just freshwater fish like alewifes, which stunk up the beaches with annual die-offs that occurred in huge numbers.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
For the past five years, returns have stunk, especially following a 28% tumble for the ETF since the end of October.
From Barron's ● Apr. 16, 2026
“It was disgusting,” she said, explaining that the walls were damp and mouldy, while the flat was dirty and stunk of cigarette smoke.
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2024
At the time, Garvey was trying to organize charity sports events, which he stunk at, to put it politely.
From Slate ● May 29, 2024
“Even Okra thought you stunk, Dad,” Matt said.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
“These are all the struggles I think about every stinking day,” she said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026
Not the good, high-altitude ozone that shields us from dangerous UV light, but bad ozone, hovering right above ground level — stinking, brownish, grayish photochemical smog.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 26, 2026
Just last month a massive stinking lump of wet wipes, fat and oil was removed from a west London sewer.
From BBC ● Nov. 17, 2025
A poisonous river of a stinking yellow liquid rushed downhill, inundating homes and fields, including the one where she grew corn to feed her eight children.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2025
I had to carry the stinking slippers back to our room, but Hattie had to wear them until she was able to get fresh ones from her trunk.
From "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
