stinking
/ˈstɪŋkɪŋ/
stinking adjective: having a pungent smell. Also the present participle and gerund of stink.
Adjective
stinking (comparative more stinking, superlative most stinking)
- Having a pungent smell.
- Very bad and undesirable.
- I have a stinking cold.
- Very drunk.
- Oh, I got stinking—and, worse, acted like the world's worst heel to top it off. I passed out mentally about the time we left the club—which must have been around 2:30—but unfortunately didn't pass out physically.2021, Mack Morriss, South Pacific Diary, 1942-1943
- An intensifier, a hypallage.
- We don’t need your stinking sympathy.
- “Everyone shut up! Lord ThunderSteel commands it! I am your leader! I have this badge that says so!”
“We don’t need no stinking badges!”2005, Annabelle du Fouet, “Kinksters and kinksterettes—Who are these people, anyway?” (chapter 1), in Weather Balloons Make Rotten Sex Toys, Ellora's Cave, →ISBN, page 27
Noun
stinking (plural stinkings)
- The emission of a foul smell.
- From the magnificent ejaculation of the Waimangu geyser, to the tiniest of gaseous emissions, descriptions of the thermal reserve were rife with dischargings, bubblings and stinkings, quiverings and palpitations, orifices and protuberances.2013, Phaedra. C Pezzullo, Cultural Studies and Environment, Revisited, page 42
Also used as
stinking is also the present participle and gerund of stink.
Examples of stinking in a sentence
- He's stinking rich — or, at any rate, pretty well off.
- Jeff stumbled weavingly down the street, stinking of alcohol.
- The thick, furry twigs of ailanthus suckers leave her fingers stinking of coffee and peanut butter.
Forms of stinking
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more stinking |
| superlative | most stinking |
| Noun | |
| plural | stinkings |
Origin of stinking
From Middle English stynkynge, stinkinge, stinkinde, stinkende, stynkande, stynkand, from Old English stincende, from Proto-Germanic *stinkwandz (“stinking”), present participle of Proto-Germanic *stinkwaną (“to stink”), equivalent to stink + -ing. Cognate with Dutch stinkend (“stinking, stinky”), German stinkend (“stinking, stinky”), Danish stinkende (“stinking, stinky”), Norwegian stinkende (“stinking, stinky”).
From Middle English stinkinge, stynkynge, equivalent to stink + -ing.
Words formed from stinking
- butt-stinking
- cry stinking fish
- stinking acacia
- stinking ash
- stinking badger
- stinking bean trefoil
- stinking cedar
- stinking chamomile
- stinking chun
- stinking corpse lily
- stinking goosefoot
- stinking gum
- stinking hawksbeard
- stinking hellebore
- stinking iris
- stinking juniper
- stinkingly
- stinking nanny
- stinkingness
- stinking nightshade
- stinking ninny
- stinking rich
- stinking sumac
- stinking toe
- stinking willie
- stinking willy
Phrases with stinking
- stinking up
- stinking out
- stinking toes
- Stinking Bishop
- stinking irises
- stinking on ice
- stinking sumacs
- stinking acacias
- stinking badgers
- Stinking Bishops
- cried stinking fish
- cries stinking fish
12 more phrasesFewer phrases
- stinking hellebores
- crying stinking fish
- stinking nightshades
- stinking corpse lilies
- stinking like a polecat
- stinking to high heaven
- stinking like a mackerel
- stinking a dog off a gut wagon
- stinking a skunk off a gut wagon
- stinking a buzzard off a gut wagon
- stinking like a mackerel in the sun
- stinking like a mackerel in the moonlight
Words that rhyme with stinking
Questions about stinking
- What does stinking mean?
- Stinking means having a pungent smell.
- What part of speech is stinking?
- Stinking can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce stinking?
- Stinking is pronounced /ˈstɪŋkɪŋ/.
Words near stinking in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: stinking (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-stinking.wav.
Cite this entry: “stinking.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stinking. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.