Dictionary

skunky en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree English skunk Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz Proto-West Germanic *-g Old English -iġ Middle English -y English -y English skunky From skunk + -y.

Meanings

1. (Canada, US, colloquial) Mean, contemptible.
   • Don't know when to expect reimbursements from Chloe. After all this time I consider her behavior skunky. 1944, Patricia Highsmith, Her Diaries and Notebooks, Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2021, April 4
2. Resembling a skunk; especially, having a strong or unpleasant odor or (of food, drink) taste.
   • One American brewer with trademark clear bottles developed a modified hop extract that’s free of the vulnerable hop acid, and this prevents its beer from going skunky. 2004, Harold McGee, chapter 13, in On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, Scribner, →ISBN:
   • Sure enough, he had the skunky odor of marijuana. 2023, Brandon Taylor, The Late Americans, Jonathan Cape, page 116:

Forms

Deriveds

skunkiness