WordofTheDay.US

skunk

/skʌŋk/ noun

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about skunk at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

  1. A person who is deemed to be despicable or contemptible.
    only a rotter would do that
  2. A defeat in a game where one side fails to score.
  3. Street names for marijuana.

verb

  1. Defeat by a lurch.

Origin

Borrowed from an unattested Southern New England Eastern Algonquian word cognate with Abenaki segôgw (literally “he who squirts (musk) / urinates”), from Proto-Algonquian *šeka·kwa, from *šek- (“to urinate”). Doublet of Chicago.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)