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

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

Even with a giant stinker in the playoffs, given his performance and looming cap hit, an extension for Prescott felt inevitable. —Saad Yousuf, The Athletic, 23 Aug. 2024

If the Warriors were due for a stinker, the bill arrived in Cleveland. —Danny Emerman, The Mercury News, 8 Nov. 2024

One stinker of a game, and those overlapping skills with Furphy, hurt somewhat — especially when finances come into play. —Tony East, Forbes, 29 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1602, in the meaning defined at sense 1a