Word.ws English Dictionary

skank

/ˈskæŋk//ˈskeɪ̯ŋk/

skank noun: a lewd and disreputable person, often female, especially an unattractive person with an air of tawdry promiscuity.

Noun (1)

skank (countable and uncountable, plural skanks)

  1. (derogatory, slang) A lewd and disreputable person, often female, especially an unattractive person with an air of tawdry promiscuity.
    • Whenever a slang word is heard, the youngsters note it, then write sentences which include the word. […]Hawk: to watch – as in “Man, that skank steady hawks me in school.”1965 March, “Youths compile slang book to develop literacy”, in Ebony, page 98
    • It's also my job to take care of the skanks on the road that you bang.1996, Cameron Crowe, Jerry Maguire, spoken by Bob Sugar (Jay Mohr), Culver City, Calif.: TriStar Pictures; distributed by Columbia TriStar Home Video, published 1997, →ISBN
    Synonyms:
    promiscuous woman
  2. Anything that is particularly foul, unhygienic or unpleasant.
    • Virgins. I love 'em. No diseases, no loose as a goose pussy, no skank. No nothin'. Just pure pleasure.1995, Harmony Korine, Kids, spoken by Telly
    • Hughes CRAVED dirt. Hughes CRAVED slander skank to share with Mr. Hoover. What Hughes CRAVED, Hughes BOUGHT. ¶ Pete bought an issue’s worth of dirt. His cop contacts supplied him with a one-week load of lackluster skank.2011, James Ellroy, American Tabloid, page 21

Adjective

skank (comparative more skank, superlative most skank)

  1. (derogatory, slang) Lewd, vulgar, skanky.
    • "I wear provocative clothes because they make me feel sexy," Toni says without apology. "If an artist like Madonna is wearing her booty hanging out, she's considered a genius. But if a black person does it, we're considered skank whores or sluts."1997 June–July, Michael A. Gonzales, “Toni's secret: Miss Braxton lets it all hang out”, in Vibe, volume 5, number 5, New York, N.Y.: Time Publishing Ventures; Intermedia Vibe Holdings, →ISSN, page 92
  2. (derogatory, slang) Foul, unhygienic.
    • You can even be a wee bit more skank and don a dirty shirt. Unwashed underwear, however, is a no-go.2001, Angela Nissel, The Broke Diaries, →ISBN, page 49

Noun (2)

skank (countable and uncountable, plural skanks)

  1. A dance performed to ska, dub, or reggae music.
    • […]the ability to double up with contagious laughter; the feeling of pure child-like glee; and the mesmerizing, trance-like skank dancing that looks like African aerobics after centuries of rhythm.1989, “Reggae: The revolution continues”, in Link, volume 32, number 1, page 35
    • All reggae dance represents a dialogue with that basic movement which is the skank — a kind of offbeat walking on the spot1999, Kwame Dawes, Natural Mysticism: Towards a New Reggae Aesthetic in Caribbean Writing, page 110
  2. (uncountable) A style of rhythmic guitar strumming in ska, reggae, and punk.
    • A typical skank guitar rhythm:
      {\time3/4\tempo4=180\set Staff.midiInstrument=#"electric guitar (muted)"\repeat unfold2{r8a4}\repeat unfold2{r8g4
    • He took it another step and brought blues into reggae music. I don’t play skank. I don’t play reggae guitar. So I had to call.2017, Jas Obrecht, “Ben Harper in San Francisco, May 3, 1994”, in Talking Guitar, page 279

Verb (1)

skank (third-person singular simple present skanks, present participle skanking, simple past and past participle skanked)

  1. To dance the skank.
    • Four-thousand miles away, there is a reggae night spot called Club 69, where local youth wear dreadlocks... and dance ska, rocksteady, and skank to the beats of the Wailers.... Club 69 is in Tokyo, the dread youths are Japanese.1998, Billy Bergman, Hot Sauces: Latin and Caribbean Pop, 1985, quoted in Craig Lockard, Dance of Life: Popular Music and Politics in Southeast Asia, page 51
  2. To play guitar with a skank rhythm.
    • Joe Strummer and Mick Jones did a lot of skanking. Skanking refers to a style of playing using scratch (page 17) rhythms with a strong accent on the off-beats (1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &) rather than the on-beats.1999, Tobias Hurwitz, Punk Guitar Styles, page 24
  3. (Jamaica, intransitive, transitive) To be dishonest or unreliable, to defraud or deceive, to steal.
    • Only Tosh, Marley and Livingston had been signed, and Aston Barrett harboured an unarticulated resentment that later would be couched in the language of betrayal[…] In any event ‘Family Man’ believed that they had an oral agreement, and placed his faith in Marley (from whom they received their...2011, Colin Grant, I & I: The Natural Mystics: Marley, Tosh and Wailer, page 210

Noun (3)

skank (plural skanks)

  1. The act of cheating a person.
    • That's not a good deal; it's a skank.
    • As for the identities of those behind the plan, the mere mention of ‘some millionaire’ reinforced the conviction of those who were ready to part with their money that they were onto a winner. While for others, the mere mention of the names Nestor Riley and Desmond Palmer was enough to confirm that...2006, Sylvester Young, More than a Game: A Story about Football and Other Stuff, →ISBN, page 73

Verb (2)

skank (third-person singular simple present skanks, present participle skanking, simple past and past participle skanked)

  1. (transitive) To cheat or betray, especially a friend.
    • He short-changed a partner, leaving him feeling skanked.
    • He thought I was trying to skank him and wouldn’t wait any more; he wanted to be there. He wouldn’t wait!2000, Lanre Fehintola, Charlie Says - Don't Get High on your Own Supply, page 101
  2. (transitive) To steal, or otherwise acquire underhandedly.
    • of course, maybe somebody that works at the factory where it was pressed could have skanked a few copies...1996 December 4, Alex Webb, “The Mystery Of Sasha's New Track...”, in uk.music.rave (Usenet)
    • As being now a dedicated 'simmer' since last fall and purchasing no end of add-ons and admittedly skanking some from the likes of Kazaa & Limewire for my FS20022004 August 28, DSB, “FS 2006 (?) wishlist”, in alt.games.microsoft.flight-sim (Usenet)

Examples of skank in a sentence

  • They were usually chickenhead skanks attracted to the gangsta culture who would lick and suck and fuck any and everything you wanted them to.2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 261:
  • Speaking exclusively to Mirror TV, Josie revealed: "I've just split up from somebody because he was a skank and was selling stories to the press, and he was a loser."2017 March 30, Hayley Minn, “Josie Gibson reveals she's found 'The One' a week after splitting from 'skank' ex as she talks new dating...
  • While for others, the mere mention of the names Nestor Riley and Desmond Palmer was enough to confirm that this whole business was a skank which would end in tears.2006, Sylvester Young, More than a Game: A Story about Football and Other Stuff, →ISBN, page 73:
  • The most common cause for time off work is the same as it always has been - skanking a day off with a bullshit excuse.2007 June 2, Ŧ๏หყ, “Smoking Area...”, in free.uk.tv.bigbrother (Usenet):

Synonyms of skank

  • promiscuous woman

Forms of skank

Noun
pluralskanks
Adjective
comparativemore skank
superlativemost skank
Verb
third-person singular presentskanks
present participleskanking
past participleskanked
pastskanked

Origin of skank

Unknown. Perhaps from skag (“unattractive woman”), but the origins of skag are unknown. Compare scold (“troublesome woman”), skeevy (“disgusting”). Attested from the 1960s.

Originally Jamaican, attested from the twentieth century, but earliest source is uncertain. The verb sense be dishonest is evidently older. Perhaps originally onomatopoeic. The dance senses may come from a resemblance to motorcyclists weaving between larger vehicles. Compare skanker.

Slang word used in Northern England. Unknown. Perhaps from etymology 2, above; attested in West Indian and UK black slang from the twentieth century.

Words formed from skank

Words that rhyme with skank

34 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about skank

What does skank mean?
Skank means a lewd and disreputable person, often female, especially an unattractive person with an air of tawdry promiscuity.
How do you use skank in a sentence?
They were usually chickenhead skanks attracted to the gangsta culture who would lick and suck and fuck any and everything you wanted them to.
What part of speech is skank?
Skank can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce skank?
Skank is pronounced /ˈskæŋk/.
What is the plural of skank?
The plural of skank is skanks.

Words near skank in the dictionary

  1. skandha
  2. skandhas
  3. Skaneateles
  4. skanger
  5. skangers
  6. skank
  7. skank up
  8. skanked
  9. skanked up
  10. skanker
  11. skankers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: skank (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-skank.ogg, En-US-skank.wav.

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