stank

See also: Stank

English

Pronunciation

enPR: stăngk, IPA^(key): /stæŋk/
Audio (General Australian): (file)
Rhymes: -æŋk

Etymology 1

Verb

stank

simple past of stink

Etymology 2

Respelling of stink, representing the thank-think merger. Compare thang.

Adjective

stank (not comparable)

(African-American Vernacular, slang, derogatory) Foul-smelling, stinking, unclean.
- 2002, Tasha C. Miller, Assout: Incoherent Thoughts and Poems of an Unemployed Black Girl, page 11:
  Fishy, pussy funky elevator
  Pissy, broke ass project elevator
  Old baby piss, stank ass horse, cat piss smelling funky hot ass elevator
  I'm not climbing no 17 flights […]
- 2003, Tariq Nasheed, Play or be played, page 124:
  This is why most top-notch women can't stand stank hoes. Classy women have more contempt for these women than men do.
- 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 204:
  They was saying the jawn freaked out and called the cops cause all her sorority sistahs started ragging on her and calling her a stank ho for fucking half the basketball team.

Derived terms

Noun

stank (plural stanks)

(African-American Vernacular, slang, derogatory) A stink; a foul smell.

Verb

stank (third-person singular simple present stanks, present participle stanking, simple past and past participle stanked)

To stink; to smell bad.
- 2010, Michael Lee, Time to Crime: Doing Time, Listening to Crime, page 39:
  I just ignored him because he stanked worst than I did.
- 2012, Tess Neis, My Own Winter Sun, page 234:
  I did not want to ask for her hand in marriage in a hospital room that stanked of chlorine and god knew what else.
- 2012, Christopher Paul Curtis, Elijah of Buxton:
  I couldn't figure out exactly how the Preacher'd done it, but something with this tithing business stanked real bad.
- 2014, Jasmine Inari Jarden, Grandfather's Favorite Girl:
  You washed it because it stanked.” It is supposed to stank.
To cause to smell bad.
- 2010, Brooke, Detroit, Lenacrave and Cleveland, page 295:
  He was killing me with the jokes and he was killing everybody with his smuggled corned beef samages that stanked up the joint.

Etymology 3

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

Noun

stank (plural stanks)

(UK, dialect) Water retained by an embankment; a pool of water.
- c. 1425, Edward, Second Duke of York [i.e., Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York], “Of the Hart and His Nature”, in W[illia]m A[dolf] Baillie-Grohman, F[lorence] Baillie-Grohman, editors, The Master of Game by Edward, Second Duke of York: The Oldest English Book on Hunting, London: Chatto & Windus, published 1909, →OCLC, page 33:
  And he [the hart] fleeth then mightily and far from the hounds, that is to say he hath gone a great way from them, then he will go into the stank, and will soil therein once or twice in all the stank and then he will come out again by the same way that he went in, and then he shall ruse again the same way that he came (the length of) a bow shot or more, and then he shall ruse out of the way, for to stall or squatt to rest him, and that he doeth for he knoweth well that the hounds shall come by the fues [footing] into the stank where he was.
(UK, dialect) A dam or mound to stop water.

Derived terms

stank hen, stankie

Verb

stank (third-person singular simple present stanks, present participle stanking, simple past and past participle stanked)

To dam up; to block the flow of water or other liquid.
- 1881, John Edwin Cussans, History of Hertfordshire - Volume 3, page 321:
  Water-courses are stanked where they take a sharp turn, to prevent the force of the current wearing away the bank at the outside angle.
- 1881, Zacharias Topelius, Whisperings in the wood, page 92:
  'Have you ever seen such a mighty river before?' 'No , I answered, 'but I knew him when he was a wee thing, a child like myself, and I have stanked him often at his sylvan source with a few small stones, and the very first vessel he ever floated was a little boat I made of a pea-pod.'
- 1888, Fores's Sporting Notes & Sketches, page 45:
  The water had been stanked most carefully , and confined within its banks by soil and turf.
- 1912, W. Hemming Jones, “The Brocklebank Dock Improvements on the Mersey Dock Estate”, in Transactions of the Liverpool Engineering Society, volume 33, page 170:
  The sewer was then stanked off at both sides of the passage by brickwork and its reconstruction commenced.
- 1962, Elsie Corbett, A History of Spelsbury, page 263:
  Mr. Hownslow was a man who lived at the Chequers Inn, and one night coming home from Charlbury, in the narrow part of Spelsbury Lane he fell down and stanked ( blocked ) the water and was drowned.
- 2013, Michael Handford, The Stroudwater Navigation Through Time:
  Rejoining the Stroudwater Canal near Lockham Bridge you can either turn left for a hundred yards or so past the concrete pillbox installed during the Second World War to where the canal is stanked off or omit this short section of canal altogether and turn right along the canal towards Bristol Road.
- 2015, L.T.C. Rolt, Winterstoke:
  The stop-planks which had for so long stanked off the waters of the summit level at South Ketton Bridge were then lifted.
(by extension) To pack in tightly.
- 1895, G. Christopher Davies, “The Dee”, in The Badminton Magazine of Sports & Pastimes, volume 1, page 251:
  They never dreamed of using a float; I doubt if there was such a thing in the whole valley; but they “stanked' their rods in the bank, with the line heavily shotted and arranged so that the hook was just clear of the bottom, the line being at right angles to the point of the rod.
- 1898, Captain James Bell, “Raising Sunken Vessels”, in Cassier's Magazine: An Engineering Monthly, volume 14, page 331:
  Should the depth of water on a vessel's deck be considered too deep for this method, the ship has to be stanked, or raised upon–that is to say, balks of timber have to be bolted or secured to her waterways; thick planks have to be fastened to the balks, so that they come above water, and then they are decked across, and the whole is made watertight with canvas or oakum.
- 2018, Derrick C. Brown, Hello. It Doesn't Matter.:
  I see your little desert-busted ankle boots and holy kid blankets, winter uniforms all stanked in must and I can't sleep here and I love your crap and I can't make a bed without you— the fitted sheet is a one-person nightmare.
(by extension, mining) To seal off an area of the mine in which a fire has started.
- 1884, North of England Institute of Mining Engineers, Transactions - Volume 33, page 155:
  The writer was obliged, a few months ago, to open out a whole district which had been "stanked off " ( as the phrase of the district is ) for over a year, and on approaching the old air-way the heat became intolerable and the fire was burning as badly as ever.
- 1916, Great Britain. Home Office, First Report of the Departmental Committee on Spontaneous Combustion of Coal in Mines, page 176:
  From your experience then, taking into account the fact that you have a fiery and dusty mine to deal with, would you prefer to stank off as soon as there is the slightest evidence of any natural heating, either by smell or vapour or anything else, or would you prefer to run the risk of having to cope with filling out a large quantity of debris to get at the fire?
- 1917, Institution of Mining Engineers (Great Britain), Transactions - Volume 53, page 32:
  If a gob-fire were more or less effectively stanked off, so that they had plenty of time for the work, he could quite see what a very useful adjunct cementation would be in that case.
- 1996, T.S. Golosinski, Guo Yuguang, Mining Science and Technology, page 19:
  The process of methane removal at the pretreatment or exploitation stage, or methane outlets from the stanked areas, are carried out in about half of them.

Etymology 4

From Old French estanc, or Italian stanco. See stanch (adjective).

Adjective

stank (comparative more stank, superlative most stank)

(obsolete) Weak; worn out.
- 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “September. Ægloga Nona.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC:
  I am so stiff and so stank, That uneath may I stand any more

Etymology 5

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

stank (third-person singular simple present stanks, present participle stanking, simple past and past participle stanked)

To surround or guard.
- 1796, The Scottish Register, page 252:
  This was executed with sch gallantry and spirit by the troops, that, notwithstanding the natural strength of this pos, the abbatis of fruit trees that were made, the batteries of the town of Bommel which stanked the approach, and the considerable number of men who defended it, it was soon carried, and the enemy driven across the river (every where passable on the ice) with considerable loss of men and of four pieces of cannon.
- 1815, James Somerville Baron Somerville, Walter Scott, Memorie of the Somervilles, page 384:
  upon the south of the garden, by ane easy descent, you come to the great orch-yaird containing sex aikers of ground, includeing a parcell thereof that is woody, all upon one levine, stanked and hedged, about whose back entry from the south leads you first to a triangle haugh surrounded with wood, and then to the river of Clyde for salmond fishing for more nor two mylles, which makes the lenth of the wholl barronie from Garingill to the Miregill mouth.
- 1830, John Spalding, The History of the Troubles and Memorable Transactions in Scotland From the Year 1624 to 1645, page 490:
  Upon Friday the 25th of April, sir William Forbes of Craigievar, at his own hand, takes in the place of Kemnay, frae the widow lady thereof, plants some soldiers therein, being stanked about, and of good defence;

Etymology 6

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

stank (third-person singular simple present stanks, present participle stanking, simple past and past participle stanked)

(Cornwall) To trample.
- 1873, Richard Hampton, Foolish Dick: an Autobiography of Richard Hampton, page 43:
  In the por ( bustle ) I lost my hat ; tell gittin ' cloase to a mait-stannin ' (shambles), to saave myself from bein' stanked ( trampled ) under fut, I got up and set down 'pon the stannin' ; an ' then, aw, I feelt my sawl all a-fire weth love for everybody theere, and sprengin' to my feet, I begun to ex'ort, and then took to pray.
- 1898, M, “Recollections of a Parish Worker”, in The Cornish Magazine, volume 1, page 471:
  And then she took down the cloam from the chimbly and stanked it under her feet, so as no one shouldn't hev it after she war gone.
- 1906, Mrs. Havelock Ellis, My Cornish Neighbours, page 40:
  I like to know a man be stanked on, for they'm miserable torments most o' their time .
- 1909, Silas Kitto Hocking, In Spite of Fate, page 177:
  I caan't afford to ' ave my straw stanked down an ' spoiled.
- 1931, Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick, Storms and Tea-cups, page 93:
  I remarked on this to Tippet and he mumbled something about they saucy girls having gathered all the eating peas and stanked on his lettuces and carrots to get them.
- 2000, Alan M. Kent, The Literature of Cornwall, page 269:
  It is this moment which Parker chooses to tell; in so doing setting a new agenda and standard for Cornu-English dialect literature: ' We should ha' just stanked on over the top of 'en but instead we hesitated and squared up.
(Cornwall) To stumble or lurch.
- 1895, Joseph Thomas, Randigal Rhymes and a Glossary of Cornish Words, page 24:
  I put on my clean gook to-day, And went to fetch some barm,When I stanked 'pon a slaw-cripple, Down there by Hodge's farm.
- 1901, Pearson's Magazine, volume 11, page 362:
  But she stanked upon a wuilkin one day in the chall, and after that she was always liable to quames.
- 1975, Jack R. Clemo, Confession of a Rebel, page 72:
  He catched sight o' the barra handles sticked up over a lime bucket, and stanked fore to grab 'em.
- 2007, Philip Payton, Making Moonta: The Invention of Australia's Little Cornwall, page 122:
  Certainly, there would be those happy to support his elevation to parliament: Then up jumped Reuben Gill, And he stanked on the floor To send John Prisk to Parliament He'd beg from door to door.
- 2010, George Pritchard, Angletwitch and Poppydock, page 9:
  The wemmen and some of the men sot down, too, but all the young cheldern runned away down out o' sight, so I stanked out as fast as I cud to see where they was going to, and when I got there, they was all down by a will.

Etymology 7

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

stank (third-person singular simple present stanks, present participle stanking, simple past and past participle stanked)

(dairying) To cause (the udders) to become blocked and inflamed from lack of milking.
- 1913, Royal Sanitary Institute (Great Britain), Journal of the Royal Sanitary Institute - Volume 33, page 86:
  In cattle auctions, cows are frequently seen with “stanked udders,” when a cow is driven to market several miles along hard roads with a loaded udder, its milk is not improved for human consumption.
- 1950, Frederick Daniel Smith, Barbara Wilcox, The Country Companion, page 91:
  An old cow, giving rather little milk and perhaps not freshly calved, may be 'stanked' in order to deceive a prospective purchaser, and in this case an accusation of 'cruelty' would not be so ill-founded.
- 1950, Frederick Daniel Smith, Barbara Wilcox, Sold for Two Farthings, page 122:
  The cows was stanked and the calves was empty.
- 2013, James MacDonald, History of Hereford Cattle:
  also the advantage of preventing any of the quarters of the udder from becoming stanked, from not being used by the calf, which leads in time to the quarter being lost.
- 2022, Mary Webb, Precious Bane:
  So instead of pleading for Beguildy I said—“Look's cows coming, they'll be stanked if they inna milked.”

Anagrams

tanks

Breton

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French estanc.

Noun

stank m

pond

Danish

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [ˈsd̥ɑŋˀɡ̊]

Noun

stank c (singular definite stanken, plural indefinite stanke)

stench

Declension

Declension of stank

common gender	Singular		Plural
common gender	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	stank	stanken	stanke	stankene
genitive	stanks	stankens	stankes	stankenes

Verb

stank

past of stinke

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch stanc, from Old Dutch stank, from Proto-Germanic *stankwaz.

Pronunciation

Audio: (file)
Rhymes: -ɑŋk

Noun

stank m (plural stanken, diminutive stankje n)

stench
Synonym: meur

Hypernym: geur

Descendants

Afrikaans: stank

German

Pronunciation

Audio: (file)
Rhymes: -aŋk

Verb

stank

first/third-person singular preterite of stinken

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Low German stank.

Noun

stank m (definite singular stanken, indefinite plural stanker, definite plural stankene)

stench, stink

References

“stank” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Low German stank.

Noun

stank m (definite singular stanken, indefinite plural stankar, definite plural stankane)

stench, stink

References

“stank” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old High German

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *stankwaz, whence also Old English stenċ.

Noun

stank m

smell

Swedish

Pronunciation

Audio: (file)

Noun

stank c

stench, stink (a very bad smell)
- 1938, Ludvig Nordström, Lort-Sverige‎^[1]:
  Denna stank hade nämligen samma underliga egenskap som liklukt att så att säga smyga sig fram och liksom långsamt, gradvis underminera luften.
  "This stench had the same strange quality as the smell of corpses, that is so to say sneaked up on you and kind of slowly, gradually undermine the air."

Declension

Declension of stank

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	stank	stanks
singular	definite	stanken	stankens
plural	indefinite	stanker	stankers
plural	definite	stankerna	stankernas

Verb

stank

past indicative of stinka

References

Anagrams

Sankt, kants, sankt, tanks