DCHP-1 Online

skunk ((n.)) † [< Algonk.]

• 1 n. See 1958 quote.

  See also: polecat  

  • The name also applies to related animals, as the little spotted skunk, Spilogale gracilis, found in southern B.C.

  • 1620  [The Beastes are Ellans, Follow-deare, Hares, Beares harmeles, Wolues, Foxes, Beauers, Catnaghenes excellent, Otteras, and a small beast like a Ferret whose excrement is Muske.]
  • 1743  (1949)  a Sculk She cow wuck.
  • 1792  (1911)  Among the animals there was a skunk like a polecat, with black and white marks.
  • 1871  (1872)  The skunk . . . is often met with, the body eighteen inches long; in colour white with a black streak down the middle.
  • 1958  Skunk (Mephitis mephitis), a member of the weasel family, the size of a large house cat. Black, with two white stripes on its back, the skunk is well known for its ability to throw a jet of scent up to a distance of 15 feet.

• 2 n. the fur of this animal.

  • 1880  Skunk, bear beaver and otter are in good demand for local use, and good lots will bring big prices.
  • 1956  Too, there were foxes and bear hides, skunk, ermine, and wolf.

• 3 n. the flesh of this animal used as food.

  • 1921  In a fourth [pot] bubbled choice pieces of beaver, muskrat, lynx, and skunk.

• 4 n. Figurative uses.

  • 1848  "Well sur, it was agreed between thim that the writher was to go at it in the colliams o' the Packet; and play Skunk agin the office-howldhers wud the intinshun of pisenin thim out cumplately."
  • 1883  There is an odor of skunk in the First ward that cannot be eliminated until there is a new civic Council and a change in the duplex.
  • 1903  (1913)  ". . . Damned scoundrel' slidin' from yer flannel face is like a coyote roundin' on a timber wolf, an' a coyote ain't as low down as a skunk. . . ."

• 5a n. Slang a mean, contemptible person; a "stinker."

  • 1825  In reply to Mac's first astounding epistle, out came this government skunk, opened his infernal water recess, and discharged on the Queenston hero such a torrent that even at thirty miles off, it offended the delicate senses of my beloved sister, Miss Griselda.
  • 1954  ". . . But you, Pierre Lavallée, you bloody pest, you dirty skunk! . . ."

• 5b n. a smelly, slow, inferior locomotive.

  • 1953  Known at times in the past as the "shuttle" and the "skunk" because of the form of locomotion, it may be near the bottom rung of the railway ladder.