skunk

• IPA^(key): /skʌŋk/
• 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”).

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, New Englands Prospect:

     The beaſts of offence be Squunckes, Ferrets, Foxes, whoſe impudence ſometimes drives them to the good wives Hen rooſt […].

2. (slang) A despicable person.
3. (slang) A walkover victory in sports or board games, as when the opposing side is unable to score. Compare shutout.
4. (cribbage) A win by 30 or more points.

• drunk as a skunk
• skunk at a garden party
• skunky

• → Czech: skunk
• → Danish: skunk
• → Finnish: skunkki
• → 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. 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.

• Mephitidae
• 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

1. skunk (animal)

• 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