Word.ws English Dictionary

raise a stink

raise a stink verb: to complain; to demand attention or remedy for a problem.

Verb

raise a stink (third-person singular simple present raises a stink, present participle raising a stink, simple past and past participle raised a stink)

  1. (informal) To complain; to demand attention or remedy for a problem.
    • If nothing happens when you ask nicely, raise a stink until something gets done.
    Synonyms:
    make a stink

Synonyms of raise a stink

Forms of raise a stink

third-person singular presentraises a stink
present participleraising a stink
past participleraised a stink
pastraised a stink

Questions about raise a stink

What does raise a stink mean?
Raise a stink means to complain; to demand attention or remedy for a problem.
What part of speech is raise a stink?
Raise a stink is a verb.
What is the past tense of raise a stink?
The past tense of raise a stink is raised a stink.

Words near raise a stink in the dictionary

  1. raise a finger
  2. raise a finger against
  3. raise a flag
  4. raise a hand
  5. raise a red flag
  6. raise a stink
  7. raise an eyebrow
  8. raise borer
  9. raise borers
  10. raise Cain
  11. raise cane

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: raise a stink (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “raise a stink.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/raise_a_stink. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.