English Explanatory Dictionary

skunk

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Any of various small mammals, of most genera of the family Mephitidae, native to North and Central America, having a glossy black with a white coat and two musk glands at the base of the tail for emitting a noxious smell as a defensive measure.
  2. A despicable person.
  3. Anything very bad; a stinker.
  4. A walkover victory in sports or board games, as when the opposing side is unable to score.
  5. A win by thirty or more points. (A double skunk is sixty or more, a triple skunk ninety or more.)
verb
  1. To defeat so badly as to prevent any opposing points.
  2. To win by thirty or more points.
  3. To go bad, to spoil.
noun
  1. A member of a hybrid skinhead and punk subculture.
noun
  1. Clipping of skunkweed, type of marijuana.
  2. Any of the strains of hybrids of Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica that may have THC levels exceeding those of typical hashish.

Pronunciation

/skʌŋk/ En-au-skunk.ogg

Word forms

skunk skunks scunck skunking skunked

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Algonquian *šek- Proto-Algonquian *-a·kw- Proto-Algonquian *-a Proto-Algonquian *šeka·kwa Eastern Algonquianbor. English skunk Borrowed from an unattested Southern New England Eastern Algonquian word cognate with Abenaki segôgw (literally “he who squirts (musk) / urinates”), from Proto-Algonquian *šeka·kwa, from *šek- (“to urinate”). Doublet of Chicago.

Related words

polecat

Derived words

badger skunk big skunk deskunk drunk as a skunk drunker than a skunk hog-nosed skunk hooded skunk hydrophobia skunk knock a skunk off a gut wagon rooter skunk skunk ape skunk at a garden party skunk at the garden party skunkbag skunkball skunkbear skunk bear (Gulo gulo skunkbill skunkbird skunk blackbird skunkbush skunk cabbage) skunk currant skunk dolphin skunked term skunkery skunk grass skunkhead skunkie skunkish skunkless skunklet skunklike skunk pig skunk porpoise skunk pox skunk spruce skunk tail skunk tree skunk turtle skunk up skunkweed skunk-weed skunk works skunkworks skunky spotted skunk stink a skunk off a gut wagon striped skunk

Translations

Abenaki: segôgw Albanian: qelbës Algonquin: cigàg Plains Apache: dookats’į́łtshesá Western Apache: golízhi Arabic: ظَرِبَان Arabic: ظِرْبان Arapaho: xoo Arapaho: xou Arikara: niWIt Armenian: սկունս Armenian: ժանտաքիս Atakapa: šikitiš Aymara: añuthaya Azerbaijani: skuns Azerbaijani: iyverən porsuq Azerbaijani: qoxarca Basque: mofeta Belarusian: скунс Breton: skoñs Bulgarian: скункс Carrier: hoonliz Catalan: mofeta Cebuano: milô Cherokee: ᏗᎵ Cherokee: ᏗᎳ Cheyenne: xāō'o Chickasaw: koni Chinese Cantonese: 臭鼬 Chinese Mandarin: 臭鼬 Chitimacha: kištˀeˀe Choctaw: konih Comanche: pohniʔatsi̱ Cree: ᓯᑳᐠ Creek: kono Czech: skunk Danish: skunk Danish: stinkdyr Dogrib: nǫtsı̨ Dutch: stinkdier Erzya: чинебача Esperanto: mefito Estonian: skunk Estonian: vinukloom Faroese: stinkdýr Finnish: haisunäätä Finnish: skunkki Fox: shekâkwa French: mouffette French: sconse French: putois
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