stinker

noun

stink·​er ˈstiŋ-kər 

1

a

: an offensive or contemptible person

b

: one that stinks

c

: something of very poor quality

also : dud sense 2a

the movie is a stinker

2

: any of several large petrels that have an offensive odor

3

slang : something extremely difficult

the examination was a real stinker

Synonyms

• bastard
• beast
• bleeder [British]
• blighter [chiefly British]
• boor
• bounder
• bugger
• buzzard
• cad
• chuff
• churl
• clown
• creep
• cretin
• crud [slang]
• crumb [slang]
• cur
• dirtbag [slang]
• dog
• fink
• heel
• hound
• jerk
• joker
• louse
• lout
• pill
• rat
• rat fink
• reptile
• rotter
• schmuck [slang]
• scum
• scumbag [slang]
• scuzzball [slang]
• skunk
• sleaze
• sleazebag [slang]
• sleazeball [slang]
• slime
• slimeball [slang]
• slob
• snake
• so-and-so
• sod [chiefly British]
• stinkard
• swine
• toad
• varmint
• vermin

Examples of stinker in a Sentence

He is a dirty little stinker.

a real stinker of a performance

Recent Examples on the Web

There is one absolute stinker of a Double Jeopardy! round, filled with incorrect guesses and clues when nobody even buzzes in. —Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 7 Jan. 2025

Commanders at Cowboys, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET ► Reports have the Commanders playing everyone, which means Jayden Daniels, Terry McLaurin (even after that stinker), and Brian Robinson Jr. are must-starts. —Jake Ciely, The Athletic, 31 Dec. 2024

Those who did pay the price of admission to watch the Nets face the Utah Jazz witnessed quite a stinker. —C.j. Holmes, New York Daily News, 22 Dec. 2024

Right as romantic comedies were curdling at the box office, Adams made one of the genre’s all-time stinkers. —Matthew Jacobs, Vulture, 6 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1602, in the meaning defined at sense 1a