stinker
Americannoun
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stinkers
plural
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a person or thing that stinks.
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Informal. a mean or despicable person; louse.
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Informal. something, especially some form of entertainment, of inferior quality.
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Informal. something difficult.
a real stinker of a crossword puzzle.
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any device emitting an offensive odor, as a stink bomb or stinkpot.
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Dialect. any of several large petrels.
noun
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a person or thing that stinks
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slang a difficult or very unpleasant person or thing
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slang something of very poor quality
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informal any of several fulmars or related birds that feed on carrion
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of stinker
1600–10; 1920–25 stinker for def. 2; stink + -er 1
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:
And those “prestige” titles are declining in quality, too, leaving one to wonder what a quantity-over-quality business like Netflix stands to gain from putting out stinker after stinker.
From Salon ● Sep. 2, 2026
Their start was an absolute stinker - they were very flat against Hull.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
When was the last time you had a conversation with someone about Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz’s 2010 stinker, “Knight and Day”?
From Salon ● Jan. 6, 2026
The judges did admirable work laying out the historical record, saying, “This is a stinker, this is a loser.”
From Slate ● Dec. 8, 2025
Some at the table laughed, and the alleged stinker looked up at me.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
Never mind that DC Studios had, at the time, released several stinkers already.
From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2026
After all, the Kraken have also played stinkers against good teams: Losing badly to the New York Rangers, Vegas, Colorado, Edmonton and Vancouver at times.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 26, 2024
James played a couple of stinkers late in the regular season when the Lakers’ schedule was condensed.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 21, 2023
"There's no-one else who's got their dad in the stadium calling the race. I've had so many stinkers where he's been calling it that it's nice to have this."
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2022
I think I might enjoy writing end-of-term reports for the stinkers in my class.
From "Matilda" by Roald Dahl
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.
