Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a loathsome, unpleasant person; occas. used teasingly/affectionately.

1607		Dekker & Webster Northward Hoe IV i: I smelt out my noble stincker Greenshield in his Chamber.
1611		J. Cook Greenes Tu Quoque Scene xix: I doe feare that I shall turne stinckard, I doe smell such a matter: you are married then?
1640		Fletcher The Night-Walker I i: wil.: I am her kinsman [...] Yet honest Franke, before I would have that stinkard, That walking rotten tombe, enjoy her maidenhead... fr.: Prethee leave mocking.
1658		Mennis & Smith ‘The Shepheards Holy Day’ Fancies and Fantasticks (1817) II 368: He that hammers like a tinker / Kettle musick is a stinker.
1700		Congreve The Way of the World IV ii: Your Mahometan, your Mussulman, is a dry stinkard.
1849		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 1 Sept. n.p.: Girls of easy virtue they call ‘stinkers’.
1850		E.V. Kenealy Goethe: a New Pantomime 189: Scoundrel, stinkard, ruffian, booby!
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).
1899		Kipling ‘The Flag of Their Country’ Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 220: He was further (I give the barest handful from great store) a Flopshus Cad, an Outrageous Stinker, a Jelly-bellied Flag-flapper.
1904		letter in Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 23 Mar. 6/2: The dirty stinkers froze me out.
1912		P.C. Wren Dew & Mildew 231: Buggin was on his perch [...] calling these stinkers his pore oppressed brethren.
1921		(con. WWI) E. Lynch Somme Mud 263: Oh sufferin’ cats! The stinkers’ve got me!
1928		Queenslander (Brisbane) 6 Sept,. 56/1: Steve very rudely called out, ‘Hello Stinker’.
1934		H. Roth Call It Sleep (1977) 225: Yuh pushed me in id, yuh lousy stinkuh!
1946		B. Cerf Anything For a Laugh 70: Let’s keep the little stinker six months more.
1949		R. Park Poor Man’s Orange 24: ‘Like me a bit, Charlie?’ A kiss landed at the corner of his mouth. ‘No, you’re a little stinker.’.
1953		H.G. Lamond Big Red 98: He had a look at them goats. [...] ‘Watch me give that ol’ stinker a bit of a hurry-up,’ says he.
1964		A. Bennett God the Stonebreaker 118: Lying bastard. Damn lying stinker! T’ief! Crooked brute!
1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 36: I thought she was a stinker when I met her.
1989		R. Dahl Rhyme Stew (1990) 70: So finally, like all great thinkers / Who also happen to be stinkers.
2000		Globe Gaz. (Mason City, IA) 15 June 1/4: [of dogs] Sometimes, though, the dogs aren’t always cooperative [...] ‘All the dogs are being stinkers today,’ Jessica said.

2. (UK Und.) the mouth.

1846

Swell’s Night Guide 51: So help my squirter, vot a rasping stink! [...] Why don’t you eat more salt and plug your stinker.

3. a black eye [20C+ use is Aus.].

1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 311: bob got a stinker.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 8 Dec. 32/1: Uncle Jim was kneeling on the hearth, giving Bobbie a lesson in boxing, and from time to time he ducked cleverly to show us all how to dodge a ‘stinker.’ Uncle has the dirtiest left on the Castlereagh; in fact, you can’t see it for dirt at times.
1903		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 7 Jan. 3/5: Met a friend on Friday who was the depressed possessor of a fine thing in black eyes. ‘Where’d you get the stinker?’ I tenderly enquired.

4. a counterfeit coin.

1832

Westmoreland Gaz. 20 Oct. 1/4: Solomons: Ven he showed it [i.e. a bad shilling] after he took it out of his mouth it was a regular stinker. Lord Mayor: Why did you put it in your mouth? You could have discovered that it was a counterfeit without tasting it. Solomon: I just put it in my mouth for to bite it, for to see whether it wasn’t a stinker: so when I finds that it bites soft, I knowed.

5. anything (occas. an individual, see cite 1904) that emits an offensive smell, orig. aimed at cigars and cigarettes; thus penny stinker n.

1833		Proceedings Geological Society II 21: The greater part of the workings are only shallow pits, touching merely the sulphureous beds, locally called ‘stinkers’ .
1838		‘Paul Pry’ Oddities of London Life I 175: [H]e gets a link, a rig’lar ‘stinker,’ vich it’s a shame for any nobleman or gentleman to be obligated to walk arter.
1891		York Herald 2 Nov. 6/2: The ventilating shafts were great stinkers.
1898		J.D. Brayshaw Slum Silhouettes 221: They’re good uns, none o’ yer penny stinkers these ain’t. Kitty brought ’em. She knows a good smoke when she sees ’em.
1900		Blackburn Standard 5 May 12/1: Whereupon he took another penny stinker — as rude boys call them — and lit up.
1900		Leicester Chron. 18 Aug. 2/3: Silver was to electro what [...] the Havana cigar [was] to the two-penny stinker.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 26 June 4/8: I smells the shillin’ stinkers an’ I listens to the band.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 7 Sept. 3/4: [of a man smoking cheap tobacco] The boys asked the kicker [...] how he knew the stinker was travelling on a second-class ticket.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 23 4/2: Stinker (Working Boys’). Penny cigars. Frequently so named in taverns.
1920		Post 28 Mar. 11/1: Everybody I meet seems to be smoking the fierce black cigarette that is commonly met with in France [...] They used to be called ‘stinkers’ by the Tommies.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 291: So they started arguing about the point, Bloom saying he wouldn’t and couldn’t and excuse him no offence and all to that and then he said well he’d just take a cigar. Gob, he’s a prudent member and no mistake. – Give us one of your prime stinkers, Terry, says Joe.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 47: Canteen Stinker: A cheap cigarette. A ‘gasper’.
1932		F. Jennings Tramping with Tramps 147: A packet of stinkers and a red ’un!
1937		Selinsgrove Leader-Times (PA) 18 Feb. 3/1: His ‘penny stinkers’ were the popular brand.
1953		A.J. Liebling Honest Rainmaker (1991) 130: A genuine Principe de la Porta [...] ‘No stinker, a real two-dollar torch.’.
1957		Simpson’s Leader-Times (Kittaning, PA) 14 Aug. 1/2: His biggest profits [...] came from sausage sandwiches and ‘penny stinker’ cigars.
1965		Miami News (FL) 1 Mar. 7/3: [He] still smokes 15 ‘penny stinker’ cigars a day.
1967		letter 8 Feb. in Edelman Dear America (1985) 153: The beach formed by the bay in town is a real stinker, resulting from all sorts of debris.
1970		J. Conaway Big Easy 40: [of a mortuary corpse] He was a real stinker – plumb full of corn bread.
1993		S. King Dolores Claiborne 24: Even stuck in a bed most of the time, wearing diapers and rubber pants, she could be a real stinker. The messes she made.
2009		J. Joso Soothing Music for Stray Cats 30: But train bogs [...] they used to be well worse. Man, they were stinkers.

6. an exceptional example of, e.g. a cold in the head.

1834		‘A Grand Turn-Up’ in Randy Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) I 188: Ragged Jack gave his rival a stunning blow on the conk and down went dirty Dick [...] Bravo! bravo! cried Ned the nightman, there’s a stinker!
1916		G. Squiers Aerbut Paerks, of Baernegum 1: Ower old mon says, ‘I ain’t ’arf copt a stinker and all,’ so the doctor ’e shoves summat in a bottle.
1943		M. Harrison Reported Safe Arrival 23: What a stinker of a cold I shall have!
1999		Guardian G2 3 Dec. 18: His wife Irene is having a right stinker of a blazing affair with a younger man.
2003		Brummagem Dict. 🌐 stinker n. a cold; flu. ‘I aint ’arf copt a stinker an’ all.’.

7. (Aus.) a very hot or humid day.

1908		Port Augusta Dispatch (SA) 3 Jan. 2/6: Christmas Day at Tarcoola was ‘a stinker’ - 112 in the shade - writes our correspondent, from there, on Dec. 26.
1939		Chron. (Adelaide) 15 June 63/1: Already the distant hills and the granite outcrop were being swallowed in waves of shimmering mirage; Taffy decided that the day was going to be a ‘real stinker’.
1944		Don Dorrigo Gaz. (NSW) 4 Feb. 3/1: It’s also a ‘stinker’ of a day - must be a 200 deg. job to-day.
1959		D. Hewett Bobbin Up (1961) 101: A real stinker ain’t it?
1967		J. Wynnum I’m a Jack, All Right 104: Hot already outside. It’s going to be a real stinker today.
2012		L. Redhead ‘Grassed’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] The next day was a stinker. The eucalypt scented humidity and relentless cicada buzz combined to form an oppressive wall.
2019		C. Hammer Silver [ebook] It was a stinker of a day.

8. (Aus.) a Chinese person.

1900

Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Apr. 31/3: I must save myself at all costs. Damn that poker-party last night! How the devil is a fellow to distinguish one ‘schtinker’ from another when he’s been keeping it up all night?

9. a brandy-ball sweet.

1906

Marvel 10 Mar. 197: A pennyworth of stinkers – brandy-balls, you know.

10. a bad turn, an unkind act.

1903

Essex Newsman 14 Nov. 2/8: Miss Garrett and I walked toghether to the Common gate. I left her outside [...] but when I came back she had gone. [...] Laver asked me if I was going out next night and I said, ‘No, she has done me a stinker to-night, and I have made no appointment with her’.

11. anything considered unpleasant because of the difficulty in accomplishing it, e.g. a school essay; thus come a stinker v., to fall into difficulties (evidence suggests that this may be unique to Wodehouse).

1917		Kipling ‘Regulus’ Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 158: The second stanza [...] of that Ode is what is technically called a ‘stinker’.
1923		F. Bason Diary I (1950) 20: It ain’t a bad life when the weather is O.K. But it’s a stinker when it is wet.
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 65: It seems a pity that the frail craft of love should come a stinker like this.
1934		Wodehouse Thank You Jeeves134: ‘And Sir Roderick came a stinker?’ ‘He appears to have fallen with some heaviness, sir.’.
1938		F.D. Sharpe Sharpe of the Flying Squad 67: What we call ‘a bit of a stinker,’ a case where there looks to be lots of trouble before anyone is caught – if ever.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 204: Stinker Difficult exam.
1973		Wodehouse Bachelors Anonymous 130: It’s his love life. It’s come a stinker.
1978		S. King Stand (1990) 51: The man from Columbia presented him with a check [...] and a stinker of a contract.
2000		Bug (Aus.) 4 Aug. 🌐 There is so much debate over rule changes that when a real stinker comes along, it’s not treated with the uproar it deserves.

12. a strongly worded letter; a disagreeable review or other communication.

1936		Wodehouse ‘Luck of the Stiffhams’ in Young Men in Spats 157: Stiffy had been yearning to write an absolute stinker to old Wivelseombe, telling him exactly what he thought of him.
1947		B. Stuart Far To Go 70: He sent him a perfect ‘stinker’ of a telegram .
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 34: Your public starts writing you stinkers.
1960		(con. c.1928) D. Holman-Hunt My Grandmothers and I (1987) 180: An old bee, Aunt Emily, wrote the Guvnor a proper stinker after she read something in a rag.
1983		New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung (TX) 23 Oct. 8/2: That season included one of the Cowboys’ all time classic stinkers, a 38-0 loss.
2008		Camden New Journal (London) Rev. 4 Sept. VII: Sumptuous costumes and wonderful locations mean this film will no doubt be a [...] hit across the Pond. But as a drama it’s a stinker.
2016		Guardian G2 10 Feb. 6/2: Andy Warhol’s maxim, ‘Don’t read your reviews, weight them,’ clearly cut no ice. He still remembers every stinker.

13. an unfunny ‘joke’.

1939		W. Winchell ‘On Broadway’ 6 Dec. [synd. col.] He quotes radio writers in defence of their raid on Joe’s ancient stinkers . . . That’s all the dial muggs savvy.
2007		Courier-Post (Camden, NJ) 25 Sept. 53/3: Television is the boob tube for many a reason. Among them a sitcom stinker from 1966.

14. a failure.

1941		B. Schulberg What Makes Sammy Run? (1992) 184: I was just running some pictures at the studio. Two stinkers.
1943		R.L. Bellem ‘Dead Man’s Shakedown’ in Dan Turner Detective Mar. 🌐 Think of the publicity you’ll get for free on ‘Desert Destiny’ and all the other Fernando del Cavallero stinkers.
1969		L. Schecter Jocks 18: Madison Square Garden also trusts its house men to avoid calling a stinker a stinker.
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 281: This stinker, loser, bomb, meant twenty-three million dollars of P-P’s money down the toilet.
1988		G. Axelrod N.Y. Times n.p.: I took Bill Holden, Audrey Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich, Noël Coward and the city of Paris and made an absolute stinker [R].
1999		Guardian G2 23 July 13: People say your show is a stinker.
2005		J. Stahl I, Fatty 85: They shot a one-reel stinker [...] Cohen at Coney Island.
2014		Great Falls Trib. (MT) 11 Oct. 51/4: Last week the Bobcats and their fans were pigging out on points. To prevent a stinker today, perhaps a different method is required.
2016		Guardian G2 14 Oct. 11/1: One critic described it [i.e. a musical] as ‘a real gold-plated stinker’.

15. a bad mood.

1999

K. Sampson Powder 488: Keva, in a stinker again.

16. the anus.

2023

R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 496: [I] shoved each serrated shard up the Chief’s stinker.