Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An offensive smell; a stench.
- noun A poisonous or foul-smelling gas emitted from the earth.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A pestilential exhalation, especially from the earth; any noxious or ill-smelling emanation, as from putrid or filthy substances; a noisome or poisonous stench.
- noun [capitalized] [NL.] A genus of skunks, typical of the subfamily Mephitinæ.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Noxious, pestilential, or foul exhalations from decomposing substances, filth, or other source.
- noun (Zoöl.) A genus of mammals, including the skunks.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A poisonous or foul smelling
gas emitted from the earth - noun A distinctive
odour that is very unpleasant.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a distinctive odor that is offensively unpleasant
- noun a poisonous or foul smelling gas emitted from the earth
- noun in some classifications: type genus of the subfamily Mephitinae
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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This indulgence, especially so on the part of an ex-president, is something of a mephitis, an abyssal seeking of ever lower depths and ever more perverse rhetorical indulgences.
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Few, on either side of the political spectrum, come well out of the affair and over it all hangs the olid mephitis of abject appeasement.
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Few, on either side of the political spectrum, come well out of the affair and over it all hangs the olid mephitis of abject appeasement.
Archive 2009-02-08 2009
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This indulgence, especially so on the part of an ex-president, is something of a mephitis, an abyssal seeking of ever lower depths and ever more perverse rhetorical indulgences.
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Does not the pungent mephitis of hypocrisy once more effortlessly wheeze from this humbugger of a politician?
Archive 2007-12-23 2007
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Does not the pungent mephitis of hypocrisy once more effortlessly wheeze from this humbugger of a politician?
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I ventured "putrid miasma" on one thread a few days ago, but "moral mephitis"?
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2009
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Michael B (8th Jan 4005pm) "an intellectual and moral mephitis."
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2009
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The MSM's reportage on Israel, Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, regimes such as Iran and Syria, etc. reflects, all too predictably and all too typically, a revulsion, an intellectual and moral mephitis. simon bacchini
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2009
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During the night drive we encountered cottontails (Sylvilagus nuttali), black-tailed jackrabbits (Lepus californicus), pinyon mice (Peromyscus trueii), and one striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis)!
Archive 2007-07-01 Christopher O'Brien 2007
chained_bear commented on the word mephitis
"This, added to the mephitis still tainting the atmosphere, caused a number of other gentlemen to vomit, as well, and William felt his own gorge rise, but controlled it by vicious nose-pinching."
—Diana Gabaldon, An Echo in the Bone (New York: Delacorte Press, 2009), 211
December 17, 2009