stinker

American  

[sting-ker] / ˈstɪŋ kər /

noun

stinkers plural

1. a person or thing that stinks.

2. Informal. a mean or despicable person; louse.

3. Informal. something, especially some form of entertainment, of inferior quality.

4. Informal. something difficult.

   a real stinker of a crossword puzzle.

5. any device emitting an offensive odor, as a stink bomb or stinkpot.

6. Dialect. any of several large petrels.

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stinker British  

/ ˈstɪŋkə /

noun

1. a person or thing that stinks

2. slang a difficult or very unpleasant person or thing

3. slang something of very poor quality

4. informal any of several fulmars or related birds that feed on carrion

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• stinkers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of stinker

1600–10; 1920–25 stinker for def. 2; stink + -er ¹

Example Sentences

Tolkien’s worlds, added that they were looking forward to traveling back to Middle-earth with Serkis, “who has unfinished business with that Stinker – Gollum!”

From Seattle Times • May 9, 2024

For weeks, fans of the notoriously reeking corpse flower, or Amorphophallus titanum, eagerly anticipated the blooming of 15-year-old Li’l Stinker at the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 17, 2018

This summer, he’s unearthed a rare artifact, the cult classic, Dixie-fried action movie Stinker Lets Loose.

From Slate • Jul. 20, 2017

EST 11:51 Stinker of the day: Leyton Orient have won two second half penalties against Exeter … and Jay Simpson has missed them both – one hit the post, the other saved.

From The Guardian • Jan. 16, 2016

“I almost went with ‘Buy It—Hook, Line, and Stinker.’

From "Hope Springs" by Jaime Berry