Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To dam up.
  • noun A body of standing water; a pool; a pond.
  • noun A tank; a ditch.
  • Exhausted; weary.
  • Old preterit of stink.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • imperative Stunk.
  • noun Prov. Eng. & Scot. Water retained by an embankment; a pool of water.
  • noun Prov. Eng. A dam or mound to stop water.
  • noun (Zoöl.), [Prov. Eng.] the moor hen; -- called also stankie.
  • intransitive verb Obs. or Prov. Eng. To sigh.
  • adjective obsolete Weak; worn out.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun UK, dialect Water retained by an embankment; a pool of water.
  • noun UK, dialect A dam or mound to stop water.
  • verb Simple past of stink.
  • adjective African American Vernacular, slang, derogatory Foul-smelling, stinking, unclean.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old French estanc, (French étang), from Latin stagnum ("a pool"). Compare stagnant, stagnate.

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Examples

  • They encouraged one another to positive hatred of the working man who had suddenly become wealthy; his name stank in their nostrils.

    Demos George Gissing 1880

  • Y’all know what a sceptic stank is full of, doncha?

    Think Progress » O’Reilly Says CAP Is “A Very Well-Oiled, Effective Character Assassination Machine” 2005

  • I ended up walking around for more than ten years with the assumption that men in turbans stank, which is ridiculous, because my male neighbours both across the street and next door wore turbans, and they were perfectly decent, non-smelly people that I saw all the time.

    Archive 2008-09-01 2008

  • For even as Andersonville was a name that stank in the North, so was Rock Island one to bring terror to the heart of any Southerner who had relatives imprisoned there.

    Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1996

  • For even as Andersonville was a name that stank in the North, so was Rock Island one to bring terror to the heart of any Southerner who had relatives imprisoned there.

    Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1996

  • For even as Andersonville was a name that stank in the North, so was Rock Island one to bring terror to the heart of any Southerner who had relatives imprisoned there.

    Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1996

  • For even as Andersonville was a name that stank in the North, so was Rock Island one to bring terror to the heart of any Southerner who had relatives imprisoned there.

    Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1996

  • For even as Andersonville was a name that stank in the North, so was Rock Island one to bring terror to the heart of any Southerner who had relatives imprisoned there.

    Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1996

  • Now Mr Paul's name stank in the nostrils of Mrs Stumfold.

    Miss Mackenzie Anthony Trollope 1848

  • Beverley Nichols claimed he was a sex-crazed cad who "stank" and bragged of seducing a 12-year-old girl in Thailand.

    Brooks Peters: Mariage Blanc 2010

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