“stank” is a form of
stink
/stɪŋk/ verb, noun, adjective
Forms stinks stinking stank stunk
- verb (intransitive) To have a strong bad smell.
- verb (intransitive, stative, informal) To be greatly inferior; to perform badly. “That movie stinks. I didn't even stay for the end.”
- verb (intransitive) To give an impression of dishonesty, untruth, or sin. “Something stinks about the politician's excuses.”
- verb (transitive) To cause to stink; to affect by a stink.
- noun A strong bad smell.
- noun (informal) A complaint or objection. “If you don't make a stink about the problem, nothing will be done.”
- adjective (slang, New Zealand) Bad; inferior; worthless. “The concert was stink. / That was a stink concert.”
- adjective (Caribbean, Guyana, Jamaica) Bad-smelling, stinky.
Synonyms
pong reek suck blow be fishy fetor odour odor smell stench malodor malodour foetor mephitis
Etymology
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).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To emit a strong, offensive smell; to send out a disgusting odor.
- verb To cause to stink; to affect by a stink.
- noun A strong, offensive smell; a disgusting odor; a stench. Fire stink. See under Fire.
Etymology [AS. stinkan to have a smell (whether good or bad); akin to OHG. stinchan, G. & D. stinken to stink; of uncertain origin; cf. Icel. stökkva to leap, to spring, Goth. stigqan to push, strike, or Gr. Stench.]
Etymology [AS. stinc.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “stink”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details