| 释义 |
▪ I. skunk, n.|skʌŋk|
Also 7 squnck, squuncke, 8 skunck. See also skink n.5
[ad. Amer. Indian (Abenaki) segankw or segongw; variant forms occur in many other dialects.]
1. a. A North American animal of the weasel kind, Mephitis mephitica, noted for emitting a very offensive odour when attacked or killed.
1634W. Wood New Eng. Prosp. (1865) 25 The beasts of offence be Squunckes, Ferrets, Foxes. 1674J. Josselyn Two Voy. 85 The Squnck is almost as big as the Racoon. 1701C. Wolley Jrnl. New York (1860) 31 Musquashes, Skunks, Deer and Wolves, they bring upon their backs to New-York. 1775A. Burnaby Trav. 11 note, There is a species of pole⁓cat in this part of America, which is commonly called a skunk. 1800Shaw Gen. Zool. I. ii. 395 A smell as insufferable as that of some of the American Weesels or Skunks. 1835W. Irving Tour Prairies xi, He was advised to wear the scalp of the skunk as the only trophy of his prowess. 1877Coues Fur-Bearing Anim. vii. 196 The Skunk is a stoutly built animal, with a small head, low ears, and short limbs..; the tail long and very bushy.
b. ellipt. The fur of the skunk.
1862B. Taylor in Life & Lett. (1884) I. xvi. 404 Sables are so expensive as to be vulgar and Skunk..is infinitely handsomer. 1884Daily News 23 Sept. 6/1 Skunk is to be very much worn this winter. It can be deodorised to a very great extent.
2. colloq. A thoroughly mean or contemptible person. Also in playful use.
1841[W. G. Simms] Kinsmen I. 171 He's a skunk—a bad chap about the heart. a1859in Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 2) s.v., Now, Tom, you skunk, this is the third time you've forgot to set on that switch. 1891N. Gould Double Event 42 That miserable old skunk you've engaged to take my place.
b. Something unpleasant or rotten; rubbish, nonsense.
1929D. H. Lawrence Pansies 148 Once and for all, have done with it, all the silly bunk of upper-class superiority; that superior stuff is just holy skunk. 1976Daily Times (Lagos) 8 Oct. 7/6 However, for throwing away the skunk of a national anthem that was unashamedly saddled to this federation for 16 long years, a thousand cheers to the father of this nation, late Murtala Muhammed.
c. U.S. Mil. slang. An unidentified surface craft. Cf. bogy1, bogey1 6.
1945J. Bryan Diary 24 Mar. in Aircraft Carrier (1954) 112 ‘Skunk’ is code for a surface contact, a companion term to ‘bogey’ in the air. 1952N.Y. Times Mag. 19 Oct. 14/4 The cruiser is..useful at times for coastal bombardment or to seek out and destroy enemy ‘skunks’ (surface craft). 1957Ibid. 19 May 22/3 A Skunk is an unidentified surface ship, as opposed to a Bogie, which is an unidentified aircraft.
3. attrib. and Comb., as skunk-fur, skunk-robe, skunk-skin; skunk-like adj.; skunk bear = wolverene, -ine, 1; skunk-bird, -blackbird U.S. (see quots.); skunk currant U.S., the fetid or mountain currant, Ribes prostratum; skunkhead U.S. (see quot.); skunk porpoise U.S. (see quot. and porpoise n.); skunk spruce, one of several aromatic North American spruces, esp. the eastern Picea glauca or the western Picea engelmannii; skunk weasel = skunk n. 1; skunk-weed U.S. = skunk-cabbage.
1876G. B. Grinnell in W. Ludlow U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Rep. Reconn. to Yellowstone Nat. Park i. 65 Gulo luscus... In this region, they were spoken of as the ‘*Skunk-bear’. 1911J. E. Rogers Wild Animals 112 The wolverine, largest of all the weasels, looks more like a bear and a skunk combined. ‘Skunk-bear’ is one of his many nicknames. 1961Tamarack Rev. Spring 9 He slouched..but never preventing the fear from settling in him, never preventing it from turning his eye wary and cruel as any skunkbear's.
1836Penny Cycl. V. 30/1 [The male bobolink's] variegated dress, which, from a resemblance in its colours to that of the quadruped, obtained for it the name of ‘*skunk-bird’ among the Cree Indians.
1855H. W. Beecher Star Papers (1873) 192 We followed that old Polyglott, the *skunk blackbird, and heard [etc.]. 1859Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 2), Skunk blackbird, the common marsh blackbird, so called in the rural districts of New England, New York, and Canada West. 1893Scribner's Mag. June 771/1 The bobolink's chief name was suggested by..his song; but another, skunk-blackbird, alludes to the skunk-like color and pattern of his dress.
a1817T. Dwight Trav. New Eng. (1821) II. 312 Three sorts of currants are found in the forest: the red, the black, and a peculiar kind, called *Skunk currants. 1846–50A. Wood Class-bk. Bot. 273 A small shrub,.. ill-scented, and with ill-flavored berries—sometimes called Skunk Currant.
1882Caulfeild & Saward Dict. Needlwk. 451/2 *Skunk Fur..is of a dark brown colour, rather long in the hair, and rough.
1848Bartlett Dict. Amer. 305 *Skunkhead, the popular name, on the sea-coast, of the Pied Duck of ornithologists.
1847Darlington Amer. Weeds, etc. (1860) 346 This plant—so readily known by its *skunk-like odor.
1884Goode Nat. Hist. Aquat. Anim. 16 The best known species on the Atlantic coast are the ‘*Skunk Porpoise’, or ‘Bay Porpoise’.
1851G. H. Kingsley Sp. & Trav. (1900) v. 144 A good *skunk robe is a very pretty bit of peltry.
1862B. Taylor in Life & Lett. (1884) I. xvi. 404 With my pelisse of racoon and my cap of *skunk-skin.
1894Amer. Folk-Lore VII. 99 Picea alba,..*skunk-spruce. 1921P. B. Kyne Go-getter iii. 32 Have you ever had any experience selling skunk spruce?.. It's coarse and stringy and wet and heavy and smells just like a skunk. 1948Sun (Baltimore) 21 Dec. 14/2 They are not, it seems, ‘real Christmas trees: only skunk spruce’.
1771Pennant Synop. Quad. 233 *Skunk Weasel.
1738Phil. Trans. XL. 348 Arum Americanum, Betæ folio. The *Scunk-weed. 1855New Cycl. Bot. II. 708 Dracontium fœtidum... It is a native of North America, where it is called Scunk Cabbage or Scunk Weed.
Hence ˈskunkdom, (a) skunkish character; (b) skunks collectively; ˈskunkish a., resembling a skunk; contemptible; ˈskunklet, a young skunk; ˈskunky a., befitting a skunk; nasty; evil-smelling.
1839J. Brown Lett. (1907) 49 My skunkdom requires only to be known to be felt. Ibid., I wish you would write poor Isabella. In this you are more skunkish than I. 1851G. H. Kingsley Sp. & Trav. (1900) v. 144, I was meditating on skunkdom and keeping a look-out for willow grouse. 1894Westm. Gaz. 2 Feb. 3/1 The five or six little skunklets remain en famille with their parents until the following spring. 1897Blackmore Dariel xl, You try to shove him into any skunky corner.., and he lets you know. 1946D. C. Peattie Road of Naturalist i. 21 Nicolletia with off-shade yellow-pinks and mustardy green-yellows and a skunky odour that simply would not wash off the fingers. 1960Tamarack Rev. Winter 127 He called..‘Skunky small one?’ Tommy Moore turned his soapy face upward. He was used to being summoned this way. 1973Globe & Mail (Toronto) 3 July 28/1 The thousands of blue-jeaned teenagers..drink beer in the sun, drinking it fast so it doesn't go skunky. 1981P. Theroux Mosquito Coast xxi. 277 In very hot weather..the jungle odour is skunky and as strong as garbage.
▸ slang. A variety of marijuana having a pungent smell; esp. (in later use) an extremely potent variety made from hybrid plants grown under artificial conditions.
1982R. De Sola Crime Dict. 139/1 Skunk, a potent variety of marijuana surreptitiously cultivated in California state parks and adjacent rural areas. 1989U.S. News & World Rep. (Nexis) 6 Nov. 27 Nostalgic baby-boomers..would not recognize the power or price of today's domestically grown weed—strains with nicknames like ‘Skunk Number 1’. 1993Guardian 23 July ii. 17/4 Now it is strictly dope again, maybe a bit of the stronger stuff like skunk... Skunk, named because it smells so awful, is grown under artificial light in Holland and north and south east England, but is still relatively rare. 1999S. Stewart Sharking i. 14 Cassie had jumped London when she'd blown a month's rent on skunk.
▸ skunk-weed n. slang = skunk n.
1987San Diego Union-Tribune (Nexis) 22 July b–1 LSD use has returned to vogue in San Diego and is on the rise. So is the sale of ‘*skunkweed’, a premium marijuana. 1998O. Tyransen in S. Champion & D. Scannell Shenanigans (1999) ix. 151 Scales, small bag of skunkweed, quarter kilo of Nepalese, the best part of a nine-bar of Moroccan slate—all straight out of the bedroom window.
▪ II. skunk, v. slang (orig. and chiefly N. Amer.).|skʌŋk|
[f. the n.]
1. a. intr. To fail. rare.
1831Constellation 1 Jan. 54/1 It is a common expression in New-England, to say of a person, who does not get a king in the game of chequers, he skunked.
b. trans. To defeat or get the better of; to inflict defeat upon.
In some quots. in passive = ‘defeated without making any score’.
1843Quincy (Illinois) Herald 24 Nov. 2/1 The Legislature will be Democratic by an overwhelming majority; it is more than probable that the Whigs have been skunked. 1845Spirit of Times 9 Aug. 273/2 In the second hand of the third game, I made high, low, game, and ‘skunked’ him, outright. 1848Bartlett Dict. Amer. 409 In games of chance, if one of the players fails to make a point, he is said to be skunked. A presidential candidate who fails to secure one electoral vote is also skunked. 1876W. Wright Big Bonanza lxxi. 541 ‘Skunked, by the holy spoons’, cried he. 1898N. Brooks Boys of Fairport ii. 37 Their only hope now was to ‘skunk’ the White Bears, who were coming to bat. 1904F. Crissey Tattlings xvii. 365 A certain trio of choice scamps from the city hall gang would make a strong committee that could skunk the enemy. 1921Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 18 Oct. 10/1 Very few hunters who went after the pheasants..did not get some at any rate, and the man who was ‘skunked’ probably would be very hard to find. 1939Sun (Baltimore) 4 Dec. 18/1 The outcome of that battle..was Navy 10, Army 0... ‘Which means,’ one of them explained to his girl friend, ‘We got 10 and they got skunked.’ 1944Duncan & Nickols Mentor Graham xvi. 170 Lincoln, with a short, logical speech in which no words were wasted, ‘skunked’ his adversary. 1948Field & Stream June 86/2, I have fished on opening day in the snow.., only to get skunked. 1971D. Conover One Man's Island 33 When the Colonel comes home from fishing, by his vociferous oaths we know that he was skunked. 1972D. Delman Sudden Death (1973) vi. 64 She'll skunk Nell Duncan today, and win.
2. a. trans. To fail to pay (a bill or a creditor).
1851B. H. Hall College Words 284 Skunk, at Princeton College, to fail to pay a debt; used actively; e.g. to skunk a tailor, i.e. not to pay him. 1859Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 2) s.v., A student who leaves college without settling up, is said to skunk his bills. 1961Webster s.v., Made a practice of skunking hotels.
b. To cheat; in pass., to be cheated out of.
1890C. W. Haskins Argonauts of Calif. xvii. 250, I got skunked once out of a good claim. 1971E. Fenwick Impeccable People iii. 21 I'm beginning to think we skunked you over the price. |