skunk

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of several small, mostly carnivorous New World mammals of the genus Mephitis and related genera, having a bushy tail and black fur with white markings and ejecting a foul-smelling oily liquid from glands near the anus when frightened or in danger. Also called polecat.
2. n. The glossy black and white fur of this mammal.
3. n. Slang A person regarded as obnoxious or despicable.
4. n. Slang A person whose company is avoided.
5. v. Slang To defeat overwhelmingly, especially by keeping from scoring.
6. v. To cheat (someone).
7. v. To fail to pay (an amount due).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A fetid animal of the American genus Mephitis, M. mephitica. In consequence of its abundance and general distribution, as well as certain peculiarities, the common skunk early attracted attention. It is mentioned in 1636 by Sagard-Théodat by several terms based on its Indian names, as scangaresse, ouinesque, etc., and in the same passage, in his “History of Canada,” this author calls it in French “enfan du diable” a name long afterward quoted as specific. It is the fiskatta of Kalm's “Travels,” commonly translated polecat, a name, however, common to various other ill-scented Mustelidæ. (See def. 2.) Chinche, chinga, and moufette (specifically moufette d'Amérique) are book-names which have not been Englished. The New Latin synonyms are numerous. The animal inhabits all of temperate North America, and continues abundant in the most thickly settled regions. It is about as large as a house-cat, but stouter-bodied, with shorter limbs, and very long bushy tail, habitually erected or turned over the back. The color is black or blackish, conspicuously but to a variable extent set off with pure white—generally as a frontal stripe, a large crown-spot, a pair of broad divergent bands along the sides of the back, and white hairs mixed with the black ones of the tail. The fur is valuable, and when dressed is known as Alaska sable; the blackest pelts bring the best price. The flesh is edible, when prepared with sufficient care. The skunk is carnivorous, like other members of the same family, with which its habits in general agree; it is very prolific, bringing forth six or eight young in burrows. The fluid which furnishes the skunk's almost sole means of defense was long supposed and is still vulgarly believed to be urine. It is the peculiar secretion of a pair of perineal glands (first dissected by Jeffries Wyman in 1844) similar to those of other Mustelidæ, but very highly developed, with strong muscular walls, capacious reservoir, and copious golden-yellow secretion, of most offensive suffocating odor, capable of being spirted several feet in fine spray, and of soon scenting the air for several hundred yards. The pungent effluvium is not less durable than that of musk, when the least quantity of the fluid has been spilled upon the person or clothes. It produces nausea in some persons, and has occasionally been used in minute doses as a remedy for asthma. Cases of a kind of hydrophobia from the bite of the skunk, with fatal result, have been reported, and appear to be authentic. For technical characters, see Mephitis.
2. n. By extension Any species of one of the American genera Mephitis, Spilogale, and Conepatus, and some others of the family Mustelidæ, as the African zorille, Asiatic teledu or stinkard, etc. See these words.
3. n. A base fellow: a vulgar term of reproach.
4. n. A complete defeat, as in some game in which not a point is scored by the beaten party.
5. To beat (a player) in a game, as cards or billiards, completely, so that the loser fails to score.
6. To cause disease in or of; sicken; scale, or deprive of scales: said of fish in the live-well of a fishing-smack.
7. n. Including the little striped skunks, at least twelve species have been recognized. After being changed back and forth by various revisers the name Mephitis is retained for the larger species and Spilogale for the smaller.
8. In an election, to defeat (an opponent) completely, so that the latter gets no votes at all.
9. To leave without paying one's bills.

Wiktionary

1. n. Any of various small mammals, of the family Mephitidae, native to North and Central America, having a glossy black with a white coat and two musk glands at the base of the tail for emitting a noxious smell as a defensive measure.
2. n. A despicable person.
3. n. A type of strong marijuana.
4. n. A walkover victory in sports or board games, as when the opposing side is unable to score. Compare shutout.
5. n. A skinhead who is also a punk.
6. n. cribbage: A win by 30 or more points. (Double skunk > 60 points, triple skunk >90.).
7. v. To win by 30 or more points.
8. v. to go bad, to spoil

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. Any one of several species of American musteline carnivores of the genus Mephitis and allied genera. They have two glands near the anus, secreting an extremely fetid liquid, which the animal ejects at pleasure as a means of defense.
2. v. In games of chance and skill: To defeat (an opponent) (as in cards) so that he fails to gain a point, or (in checkers) to get a king.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. American musteline mammal typically ejecting an intensely malodorous fluid when startled; in some classifications put in a separate subfamily Mephitinae
2. v. defeat by a lurch
3. n. a defeat in a game where one side fails to score
4. n. a person who is deemed to be despicable or contemptible
5. n. street names for marijuana