skunk

CEFRB1

/skʌŋk/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A small black-and-white animal with a strong smell.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A despicable person.

Examples

  • I almost stepped on a skunk last night.

  • We call him "Skunk Man".

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
4

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Anything very bad; a stinker.

  2. 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.

  3. Any of various small mammals, of most genera of the family Mephitidae, native to North and Central America, having a glossy black coat with white markings and two musk glands at the base of the tail for emitting a noxious smell as a defensive measure.

More examples

In context

  • We fished all day but the lake skunked us.

  • 2011, Gerard DeGroot (quoting Brown), Seventies Unplugged […] mods, skins, suedes, smoothies, punks, skunks, rude boys, soul boys and headbangers […]

  • I skunked him at cards.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The black-and-white creature sprayed a foul odor to defend itself, revealing it was a blank.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

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.