skunk

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  The skunk
• WordNet 3.6
  • v skunk defeat by a lurch
  • n skunk American musteline mammal typically ejecting an intensely malodorous fluid when startled; in some classifications put in a separate subfamily Mephitinae
  • n skunk street names for marijuana
  • n skunk a defeat in a game where one side fails to score
  • n skunk a person who is deemed to be despicable or contemptible "only a rotter would do that","kill the rat","throw the bum out","you cowardly little pukes!","the British call a contemptible person a `git'"
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• Interesting fact: Spotted skunks do handstands before they spray
• • n Skunk (Zoöl) 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.☞ The common species of the Eastern United States (Mephitis mephitica) is black with more or less white on the body and tail. The spotted skunk (Spilogale putorius), native of the Southwestern United States and Mexico, is smaller than the common skunk, and is variously marked with black and white.
  • v. t Skunk 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.
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• Interesting fact: Minnesotans are forbade from teasing skunks.
• • n skunk 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.
  • n skunk 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.
  • n skunk A base fellow: a vulgar term of reproach.
  • n skunk A complete defeat, as in some game in which not a point is scored by the beaten party.
  • skunk To beat (a player) in a game, as cards or billiards, completely, so that the loser fails to score.
  • skunk To cause disease in or of; sicken; scale, or deprive of scales: said of fish in the live-well of a fishing-smack.
  • n skunk 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.
  • skunk In an election, to defeat (an opponent) completely, so that the latter gets no votes at all.
  • skunk To leave without paying one's bills.
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• Interesting fact: The horned owl is the only animal stupid enough to attack a skunk.
• • n Skunk skungk a small North American carnivorous quadruped allied to the otter and weasel, defending itself by emitting an offensive fluid: a low fellow:
  • v.t Skunk to inflict such
  • n Skunk skungk (U.S.) a complete defeat
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• Joseph Cannon

  

  “Sometimes in politics one must duel with skunks, but no one should be fool enough to allow skunks to choose the weapons.”
• Austin O'Malley

  

  “Exclusiveness is a characteristic of recent riches, high society, and the skunk.”
• Abraham Lincoln

  

  “What kills the skunk is the publicity it gives itself.”

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