stink to high heaven

English

WOTD – 19 October 2019

Etymology

A hyperbole suggesting that a smell is so strong it can even be detected from heaven.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈstɪŋk tə haɪ ˈhɛv(ə)n/
• Hyphenation: stink to high hea‧ven

Verb

stink to high heaven (third-person singular simple present stinks to high heaven, present participle stinking to high heaven, simple past stank to high heaven or stunk to high heaven, past participle stunk to high heaven)

1. To have a very strong and unpleasant smell.

   Synonyms: reek; see also Thesaurus:reek

   • 1975, Donald Goines, chapter I, in Swamp Man, Los Angeles, Calif.: Holloway House Publishing Company, published 2005, →ISBN, page 12:

     He could stand snakes, but alligators he disliked. It was the way they dragged their victims underneath the water and buried them, waiting until the corpse became rotten. That was the way they liked their meat—stinking to high heaven. The thought of such a death filled him with dread.

   • 1989 December 19, “Elvis stunk to high heaven & even wet his pants!: New shocker in blockbuster book”, in Eddie Clontz, editor, Weekly World News, volume 11, number 11, Lantana, Fla.: Weekly World News, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 12:

     Pill-popping rocker Elvis Presley was so hooked on drugs he refused to bathe for months on end, he often wet his pants – and he stunk to high heaven!

   • 2002 June, Patricia McConnell, “Planet Smell”, in The Other End of the Leash: Why We Do What We Do around Dogs, 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, Random House, published May 2003, →ISBN, page 83:

     The next time Tulip [a dog] comes home smiling and stinking to high heaven of fox feces, I think I'm going to soak her in a bucket of Chanel No. 5. That'll teach her.

   • 2004, Mary Charles [pseudonym; Mary Hadley and Charles Martin], chapter 18, in The Reluctant Corpse, [Great Britain]: Twenty First Century Publishers, →ISBN, page 83:

     Despite the high powered air conditioners and fans he'd installed, the room was still hot, and it stank to high heaven. He'd have to throw his clothes in the wash and shower thoroughly after he got done with this job.

   • 2012, August Strindberg, David Eldridge, translated by Charlotte Barslund, Miss Julie: […], London, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 20:

     It was you. I hid amongst the weeds and thistles and got scratched to pieces. I was wet and I stank to high heaven but I watched you.

   • 2014 June 26, John Bloxham, “Anal Glands”, in Dr Jack’s Dog Facts: A Guide to Common Canine Ailments, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 32:

     Anal glands are actually small sacs, a pair, one on either side of the rectum. [...] The contents can range from a consistency of toothpaste to yucky liquid. It always stinks to high heaven; the odor is very difficult to wash off.

2. (figuratively) Of a person or situation: to be highly ethically dubious; also, of a person: to be very incompetent.
   • 1954, Friedrich Nietzsche, “Thus Spoke Zarathustra: Fourth and Last Part [The Voluntary Beggar]”, in Walter Kaufmann, transl., The Portable Nietzsche: […] (The Viking Portable Library; 64), New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press, →OCLC; republished London: Penguin Books, 1976 (1988 printing), →ISBN, page 382:

     Was it not that I was nauseated by our richest men? By the convicts of riches, who pick up their advantage out of any rubbish, with cold eyes, lewd thoughts; by this rabble that stinks to high heaven; by this gilded, false mob whose fathers have been pickpockets or carrion birds or ragpickers— [...]

   • 1969 February, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, “What Men Live By”, in Nicholas Bethell, David Burg, transl., Cancer Ward: Translated from the Russian, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, September 1972 (18th printing), →OCLC, page 104:

     "Good God, what nonsense!" Rusanov spat the words out, with a hiss. "It's time someone changed the record. What a moral! It stinks to high heaven, it's quite alien to us. What does it say there that men live by?"

   • 1998, Fyodor Dostoevsky, “Crisis in the Tenement”, in Ignat Avsey, transl., The Karamazov Brothers: […] (Oxford’s World Classics), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 254:

     "Well," I reply, "each to his own, but as for you, small as you are, you stink to high heaven."

   • 2005, Dave Zirin, “Introduction: Sports—An Offer We Can’t Refuse”, in Whats My Name, Fool?: Sports and Resistance in the United States, Chicago, Ill.: Haymarket Books, →ISBN, page 17:

     Professional sports are now the tenth largest industry in the United States, generating $220 billion in revenue every year. And just like Mr. Roth's rackets, it's a business that can stink to high heaven.

Translations

to have a very strong and unpleasant smell

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 臭氣熏天 (zh) (chòuqìxūntiān)

• Dutch: een uur in de wind stinken
• German: zum Himmel stinken
• Spanish: oler a chotuno
• Ukrainian: смерді́ти до небе́с (smerdíty do nebés)

to be highly ethically dubious

• German: zum Himmel stinken

to be very incompetent

Further reading

• “stink, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1917.
• “stink (or smell) to high heaven, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.