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Glite Dictionary
to stink out

to stink out

1 6.7
To fill a place with a very bad smell
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : llenar de mal olor
  • It stinks out here.

Examples

  • And one quote is that they stank out Parson and congregation that people just couldn't stand to be there.

  • Okay, it stinks out there.

    It's All Good (2016)

  • - And you stink out the wash house, too.

    Wicked Little Letters (2024)

  • It really stinks out here.

    Prancer: A Christmas Tale (2022)

  • You're stinking out the place.

    Full English Breakfast (2014)

  • It stinks out here.

    Penitentiary II (1982)

  • A tenant's dogs are stinking out a council block, a woman is attracting rats by leaving food out for the pigeons, and a food inspector is cracking down on illegal street traders.

    Academic text (2005)

  • The spoiled food began to stink out the entire kitchen.

  • The overflowing trash can was starting to stink out the hallway.

  • After the fish sat out too long, it really stunk out the house.

Synonyms

to stink up
vsto stink out
15 4.8

Make a place smell very bad

is focused on filling the surrounding area with a bad smell
to stink up the place
vsto stink out
3 7.5

Make a place smell very bad

is about filling a place with a very unpleasant smell
to smell up
vsto stink out
1 7.5

Make a place or thing smell bad

is mainly used for filling places rather than only making objects smell bad

How Smelly

to stink to high heaven
  • Informal
5 8.1
to reek
33 5.9
to stink out
1 6.7
to stink
165 1.0
to smell
862 1.0

Surface Forms

stink out infinitive
stinking out present participle
stinks out third person singular
stank out past
stunk out past participle

Morphology

stink + out

The meaning 'to fill a place with a very unpleasant smell' is directly derived from combining 'stink' (to give off an unpleasant odor) with the particle 'out' which conveys extension or movement outward/throughout a space. This verb+particle composition follows a regular, cross-linguistic pattern of particles indicating spreading or completeness, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Stink out comes from the simple image of a strong bad smell spreading into a room. When something stinks and the smell goes out it fills the space and forces people to leave, so it means 'to fill a place with a very bad smell'.