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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

stink.

To have a strong bad smell.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/stɪŋk/

  1. To have a strong bad smell.

    intransitive

  2. To be greatly inferior; to perform badly.

    informal · intransitive · stative
    That movie stinks. I didn't even stay for the end.

  3. To give an impression of dishonesty, untruth, or sin.

    intransitive
    Something stinks about the politician's excuses.

  4. To cause to stink; to affect by a stink.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English stinken, from Old English stincan, from Proto-Germanic *stinkwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *stengʷ-, *stegʷ- (“to push, thrust, strike”). Cognate with West Frisian stjonke (“to stink”), Dutch stinken (“to stink”), German stinken (“to stink”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk stinke (“to stink”), Swedish stinka (“to stink”), Icelandic stökkva (“to spring, leap, jump”). Compare typologically Russian рази́ть (razítʹ).

noun/stɪŋk/

  1. A strong bad smell.

    countable · uncountable

  2. A complaint or objection.

    countable · informal · uncountable
    If you don't make a stink about the problem, nothing will be done.
    She's made a big stink about me calling her "Miss", not "Ms".
Where this word comes from

From Middle English stinken, from Old English stincan, from Proto-Germanic *stinkwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *stengʷ-, *stegʷ- (“to push, thrust, strike”). Cognate with West Frisian stjonke (“to stink”), Dutch stinken (“to stink”), German stinken (“to stink”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk stinke (“to stink”), Swedish stinka (“to stink”), Icelandic stökkva (“to spring, leap, jump”). Compare typologically Russian рази́ть (razítʹ).

adj/stɪŋk/

  1. Bad; inferior; worthless.

    New-Zealand · slang
    The concert was stink. / That was a stink concert.

  2. Bad-smelling, stinky.

    Caribbean · Guyana · Jamaica
Where this word comes from

From Middle English stinken, from Old English stincan, from Proto-Germanic *stinkwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *stengʷ-, *stegʷ- (“to push, thrust, strike”). Cognate with West Frisian stjonke (“to stink”), Dutch stinken (“to stink”), German stinken (“to stink”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk stinke (“to stink”), Swedish stinka (“to stink”), Icelandic stökkva (“to spring, leap, jump”). Compare typologically Russian рази́ть (razítʹ).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.