: any of various common omnivorous black-and-white New World mammals (family Mephitidae, especially genus Mephitis) related to weasels that have a pair of perineal glands from which a secretion of pungent and offensive odor is ejected
Noun
Her brother's a low-down, dirty skunk.
he's nothing but a dirty, rotten skunkVerb
we ended up skunking them, as our goalie was able to prevent the other team from scoring a single goal
our football team consistently skunks our traditional rivals Thanksgiving after Thanksgiving
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Noun
Wafting down the normally quiet halls were the sounds of whistles, shouting— and the unmistakable smell of a skunk.—Patrick Salland, Kansas City Star, 5 June 2025 Until then, the best chance to see them is at the skunk training demonstrations in The Loft at 2:30 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.—Lauren Penington, Denver Post, 4 June 2025
Verb
The party got skunked in every battleground state and lost the popular vote for the first time in 20 years.—Charlotte Alter, Time, 19 May 2025 Sam had a sudden flash of some decades old cartoon, an anthropomorphized rabbit or skunk with its jaw dropped, a foghorn like awooga accompanying the lolling of its cartoonishly long tongue.—Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 12 Feb. 2025 See All Example Sentences for skunk
Word History
Etymology
Noun
earlier squuncke, from a Massachusett reflex of Algonquian *šeka·kwa, from šek- urinate + -a·kw fox, fox-like animal
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