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
-
to be offensive to honesty or propriety; to be in extremely bad repute or disfavor.
-
Informal. to be disgustingly inferior.
That book stinks.
-
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
-
slang a great deal of trouble (esp in the phrase to make or raise a stink )
-
intensely; furiously
verb
-
to emit a foul smell
-
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
-
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
-
stinksimple
-
stinkssimple
-
have stunkperfect
-
has stunkperfect
-
am stinkingprogressive
-
are stinkingprogressive
-
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
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Smell Words
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Words with Two Past-Tense Forms That Creeped (or Crept) into English
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Bats are invaluable in agriculture, gorging on pests that target crops — corn earworms, brown stink bugs, cucumber beetles and more.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
Injuries stink, and so did the opacity with which the Clippers shared news of their star’s health status.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
Innuendo leaves a lingering stink that’s harder to dispel.
From Slate ● Jul. 17, 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
"Except you don't smell as good as a flower. In fact, you stink," Shyam, the new class bully, told her, and his friend Srikant snickered.
From "Born Behind Bars" by Padma Venkatraman
It stinks if you get stuck in it, but it’s also a sign of a desirable situation, of good weather and lively culture and plentiful entertainment options that include, typically, winning baseball.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2026
Officials who have since left office have also been accused of behavior that stinks of self-dealing.
From Slate ● Oct. 8, 2026
The reason is clear the second you walk into the neighbourhood: it stinks.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026
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
Her house stinks of turpentine and urine from all her cats.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
"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
The rules stank, but the rules were the rules, and everyone knew them, and Bush allegedly broke them, and no shiny trophy is going to change that.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 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 hall stank of soot, dung, and wet dog.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
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
But when the Army Corps removed her beloved tree this year, all that remained was the jacaranda — the one that for years had left her car sticky with sap and stunk up the street.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2025
“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
And when they shut off the water first and then the power next, it stunk and the rats came, braver than the bugs, more invasive than the men.
From "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline
Stafford Hopkins is good-looking, brilliant, successful and stinking rich.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
To others, it put a stop to nights of stinging eyes and stinking clothes - and, most importantly, it saved lives.
From BBC ● Mar. 26, 2026
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 share Vejar’s loathing for the relentless “tree of heaven,” the deciduous plant that is sometimes called a stinking sumac.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2025
“Ziggy is so stinking cute. I see Mae taking him outside sometimes.”
From "A Soft Place to Land" by Janae Marks
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
