skunk

English

Wikipedia

A striped skunk.

Etymology

At first spelt squunck, from the Abenaki name for the animals, segôgw, segonku (“he who squirts / urinates”), from Proto-Algonquian *šeka:kwa, from *šek- (“to urinate”) (Abenaki seg-) + *-a:kw (“fox”) (Abenaki (w)ôkw(ses)).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /skʌŋk/, X-SAMPA: /skVNk/
• Rhymes: -ʌŋk

Noun

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

Derived terms

• drunk as a skunk
• skunky

Translations

animal

• Algonquin: cigàg
• Arikara: níwit
• Atakapa: šikitiš
• Ayautla Mazatec: tjiuxikja
• Carrier: hoonliz
• Catalan: mofeta (ca) f
• Chickasaw: koni
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 臭鼬 (cmn) (chòuyòu)

• Chitimacha: kištˀeˀe
• Choctaw: konih
• Chumash:

  Inezeño: taxama

  Obispeño: tqema

  Ventureño: taxama

• Comanche: pohniʔatsi̱
• Creek: kono
• Czech: skunk (cs) m
• Dogrib: nǫtsı̨
• Dutch: stinkdier (nl)
• Esperanto: mefito
• Estonian: skunk, vinuk
• Finnish: haisunäätä (fi), skunkki (fi)
• Fox: shekâkwa
• French: moufette (fr) f, sconse (fr) m
• German: Stinktier (de) n, Skunk (de) m
• Greek: μεφίτιδα (el) (mefítida) f
• Hebrew: בואש (boesh) m
• Hungarian: bűzös borz (hu)
• Icelandic: skunkur (is) m
• Indonesian: sigung (id)
• Isthmus Zapotec: beʼteʼ
• Italian: moffetta (it) f

• Japanese: スカンク (ja) (sukanku)
• Kashaya: nupʰeˑ
• Kickapoo: sekaakwa
• Lakota: maká
• Macedonian: твор m
• Maricopa: milxwe
• Natchez: šic
• Navajo: gólízhii
• Norwegian: skunk (no) m, stinkdyr (no) n
• Ojibwe: zhigaag
• Oneida: aní·tas
• Pawnee: ríwit
• Plains Apache: dookats’į́łtshesá
• Polish: skunks (pl) m
• Portuguese: cangambá (pt) m, gambá (pt) m
• Quapaw: mą́ka
• Romansch: scunc m
• Russian: скунс (ru) (skuns) m
• Salinan: šowá
• San Jerónimo Tecóatl Mazatec: xíkjá
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: твор m

  Roman: tvor m

• Seri: sliitxcoj
• Shuswap: sts̓ípeq
• Slovene: dihur (sl) m
• Spanish: mofeta f (Spain), zorro hediondo m (Costa Rica), zorrillo m (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua)
• Swedish: skunk (sv) c
• Taos: kùylulúna
• Turkish: kokarca (tr)
• Western Ojibwa: sikāk
• Wolof: jab bi (wo)
• Yokuts: cʰox, čʰox, sox

Verb

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

See also

• Mephitidae
• Mephitis
• Spilogale
• Conepatus
• polecat

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Swedish

Noun

skunk c

1. a skunk

Declension

Declension of skunk

	singular		plural
Common	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	skunk	skunken	skunkar	skunkarna
genitive	skunks	skunkens	skunkars	skunkarnas