Noun: skunk
| Singular | skunk |
| Plural | skunks |
Sample Sentences
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The beaſts of offence be Squunckes, Ferrets, Foxes, vvhoſe impudence ſometimes drives them to the good vvives Hen rooſt, to fill their Paunch: ſome of theſe be blacke; their furre is of much eſteeme. [1634, William Wood, “Of the Beasts that Live on the Land”, in New Englands Prospect. A True, Lively, and Experimentall Description of that Part of America, Commonly Called New England; […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Bellamie, […], →OCLC, 1st part, pages 22–23:]
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In fact, the term he applied to this species of human being was "skunk," and he used it freely. [1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 152:]
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On the other hand, many critics contend that in terms of literary quality, many of the multiple-storyline books are true skunks. [1987, English Journal, volume 76, numbers 5-8, page 52:]
Nouns inflected like skunk
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
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.
Verbs referencing "skunk"
Dutch Nouns
skunk, Swedish Nouns
skunk, German Nouns
Skunk, Finnish Nouns
skunkki, Icelandic Nouns
skunkur.