skunk

• POS: Noun, Verb (transitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

skunk, n. [Contr. from the Abenaki (American Indian) seganku.].

 Any one of several species of American musteline carnivores of the genus Mephitis and allied genera. They have two glands near the anus, secreting an extremely fetid liquid, which the animal ejects at pleasure as a means of defense.  [1913 Webster]
" The common species of the Eastern United States (Mephitis mephitica) is black with more or less white on the body and tail. The spotted skunk (Spilogale putorius), native of the Southwestern United States and Mexico, is smaller than the common skunk, and is variously marked with black and white."  [1913 Webster]

Skunk bird, Skunk blackbird (Zoöl.), the bobolink; -- so called because the male, in the breeding season, is black and white, like a skunk. -- Skunk cabbage (Bot.), an American aroid herb (Symplocarpus f) having a reddish hornlike spathe in earliest spring, followed by a cluster of large cabbagelike leaves. It exhales a disagreeable odor. Also called swamp cabbage. -- Skunk porpoise. (Zoöl.) See under Porpoise.

skunk, v. t. 

 In games of chance and skill: To defeat (an opponent) (as in cards) so that he fails to gain a point, or (in checkers) to get a king.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

skunk, n. & v.
--n.
1 a any of various cat-sized flesh-eating mammals of the family Mustelidae, esp. Mephitis mephitis having a distinctive black and white striped fur and able to emit a powerful stench from a liquid secreted by its anal glands as a defence. b its fur.
2 colloq. a thoroughly contemptible person.
--v.tr.
1 US sl. defeat.
2 fail to pay (a bill etc.).

Idiom

skunk-bear US a wolverine. skunk-cabbage US a herbaceous plant, Lysichiton americanum, with an offensive-smelling spathe.

Etymology

Amer. Ind. segankw, segongw

THESAURUS

skunk

Cape polecat, animal, ape, bar, bear, beast, beat, blank, bulldoze, cavy, chimp, chimpanzee, clobber, coon, cream, cur, defeat utterly, dog, drub, ferret, foumart, glutton, groundhog, guinea pig, hedgehog, hound, hyena, insect, lambaste, larrup, lick, mongrel, monk, monkey, mousehound, opossum, overbear, overwhelm, paste, pig, polecat, porcupine, possum, prairie dog, prick, quill pig, raccoon, reptile, rotten egg, schmear, scum, serpent, shellac, shit, shithead, shut out, smear, snake, snow under, steamroller, stink ball, stink bomb, stinkard, stinker, stinkpot, swine, thrash, toad, turd, varmint, vermin, viper, warning sign, weasel, whelm, whelp, whistle-pig, whitewash, whomp, whop, wolverine, woodchuck, worm, zoril

ROGET THESAURUS

skunk

Fetor

N fetor, bad, smell, bad odor, stench, stink, foul odor, malodor, empyreuma, mustiness, rancidity, foulness, stoat, polecat, skunk, assafoetida, fungus, garlic, stinkpot, fitchet, fitchew, fourmart, peccary, acridity, fetid, strong-smelling, high, bad, strong, fulsome, offensive, noisome, rank, rancid, reasty, tainted, musty, fusty, frouzy, olid, olidous, nidorous, smelling, stinking, putrid, suffocating, mephitic, empyreumatic.