stink

CEFRB1

/stɪŋk/

verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To have a very bad smell.

  2. 02

    verb

    Extra detail

    To be greatly inferior; to perform badly.

Examples

  • He is raising a big stink over a minor glitch.

  • "I'm soaked with sweat." "Step back. You stink!"

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings
  1. To give an impression of dishonesty, untruth, or sin.

  2. To have a strong bad smell.

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

More examples

In context
  • If you don't make a stink about the problem, nothing will be done.

  • That movie stinks. I didn't even stay for the end.

  • Something stinks about the politician's excuses.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The leftover fish began to blank after being left in the sun.

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

Nearby

Origin

verb

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”).