skunk

• IPA^(key): /skʌŋk/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌŋk

From an unattested Southern New England Algonquian word, cognate with Abenaki segôgw, segonku (“he who squirts (musk) / urinates”), from Proto-Algonquian *šeka·kwa, from *šek- (“to urinate”). Doublet of Chicago.

skunk (plural skunks)

1. Any of various small mammals, of the family Mephitidae, native to North and Central America, having a glossy black with a white coat and two musk glands at the base of the tail for emitting a noxious smell as a defensive measure.
   • 1634, William Wood, “Of the Beasts that Live on the Land”, in New Englands Prospect. A True, Lively, and Experimentall Description of that Part of America, Commonly Called New England; […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Bellamie, […], →OCLC, 1st part, pages 22–23:

     The beaſts of offence be Squunckes, Ferrets, Foxes, vvhoſe impudence ſometimes drives them to the good vvives Hen rooſt, to fill their Paunch: ſome of theſe be blacke; their furre is of much eſteeme.

2. (slang, derogatory, dated) A despicable person.
3. (slang, derogatory, dated) Anything very bad; a stinker.
   • 1987, English Journal, volume 76, numbers 5-8, page 52:

     On the other hand, many critics contend that in terms of literary quality, many of the multiple-storyline books are true skunks.

4. (slang) A walkover victory in sports or board games, as when the opposing side is unable to score.

   Coordinate term: shutout

5. (cribbage) A win by 30 or more points. (A double skunk is 60 or more, a triple skunk 90 or more.)

• → Czech: skunk
• → Danish: skunk
• → German: Skunk
• → Finnish: skunkki
• → French: skunks
• → Icelandic: skunkur
• → Japanese: スカンク (sukanku)
• → Norwegian: skunk
• → Polish: skunks
• → Russian: скунс (skuns)
• → Slovak: skunk
• → Swedish: skunk

skunk (third-person singular simple present skunks, present participle skunking, simple past and past participle skunked)

1. (transitive, slang) To defeat so badly as to prevent any opposing points.

   I skunked him at cards.

   We fished all day but the lake skunked us.

2. (cribbage) To win by 30 or more points.
3. (intransitive, of beer) To go bad, to spoil.

• Mephitis
• Spilogale
• Conepatus
• polecat

Blend of skinhead +‎ punk, influenced by the animal (Etymology 1).

skunk (plural skunks)

1. A member of a hybrid skinhead and punk subculture.
   • 2006, Pam Nilan, Carles Feixa, Global Youth?: Hybrid Identities, Plural Worlds, page 192:

     In the early 1980s, certain ex-punks joined them, becoming 'skunks' – a hybrid subculture of skinheads and punks.

   • 2011, Gerard DeGroot (quoting Brown), Seventies Unplugged

     […] mods, skins, suedes, smoothies, punks, skunks, rude boys, soul boys and headbangers […]

From skunkweed (“certain highly aromatic marijuana”).

skunk (countable and uncountable, plural skunks)

1. (slang) Clipping of skunkweed (marijuana).
2. Any of the strains of hybrids of Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica that may have THC levels exceeding those of typical hashish.

skunk m anim

1. skunk (animal)

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

• skunk in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• skunk in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

Borrowed from English skunk.

• IPA^(key): /skʏŋk/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: skunk

skunk m (uncountable)

1. skunk, weed with a high level of THC

skunk c

1. a skunk