Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A strong, foul odor; a stink.
  • noun A foul or objectionable quality.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • An obsolete variant of stanch.
  • To cause to emit a stench; cause to stink.
  • noun An ill smell; an offensive odor.
  • noun Synonyms Stink, etc. See smell.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete A smell; an odor.
  • noun An ill smell; an offensive odor; a stink.
  • noun a contrivance to prevent stench or foul air from rising from the openings of sewers, drains, etc.
  • transitive verb obsolete To stanch.
  • transitive verb obsolete To cause to emit a disagreeable odor; to cause to stink.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a strong foul smell, a stink
  • noun metaphorically, a foul quality
  • verb obsolete To cause to emit a disagreeable odour; to cause to stink.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a distinctive odor that is offensively unpleasant

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English stenc, odor.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English stenċ

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Examples

Comments

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  • He is here tonight,

    sixty one years old,

    at this moment crouched

    in the piss-stenched bogs

    weeping, and weeping.

    - Peter Reading, 5x5x5x5x5, 1983

    July 4, 2008

  • "Great God. The Stenche."

    October 7, 2008

  • a pit of fear,

    a stench,

    hands unreasonable

    never to touch.

    - Robert Creeley, 'A Form of Women'.

    August 31, 2009