Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US campus) to renege on a bill.

1856		B.H. Hall College Words (rev. edn) 431: Skunk, at Princeton College, to fail to pay a debt; used actively; e.g. to skunk a tailor, i.e. not to pay him.
1859		Bartlett Dict. Amer (2nd edn) 410: A student who leaves college without settling up, is said to skunk his bills.

2. (US/W.I. sporting) to beat decisively; also fig. use.

1843		Quincy (IL) 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.
1846		Durivage & Burnham Stray Subjects (1848) (1851) 135: In the second hand of the third game, I made high, low, game, and ‘skunked’ him, outright, again.
1876		‘Dan de Quille’ Big Bonanza (1947) 415: ‘Skunked, by the holy spoons,’ cried he.
1886		Parsons Dly Sun (KS) 25 May 4/2: ‘I played cards [...] with Jailer Dixon to see whether I would be acquitted or not [...] and I “skunked” him every game’.
1904		F. Crissey Tattlings of a Retired Politician 365: A certain trio of choice scamps from the city hall gang would make a strong committee that could skunk the enemy [DA].
1921		Denton jrnl (MD) 1 Oct. 6/1: ‘I skunked old Sydney on the fifth game — think of it! I skunked him!’.
1931		Philip Stevenson Gospel According to St Luke’s 213: All you have to do to sk-k-kunk an Atheist is to point to the stars and say, ‘Who m-m-made those?’.
1944		Duncan & Nickols Mentor Graham 170: Lincoln, with a short, logical speech in which no words were wasted, ‘skunked’ his adversary [DA].
1959		Lead Dly Call (SD) 4 Aug. 6/4: ‘Smith challenged me to a little pistol match [...] and I skunked him’.
1961		(con. 1945) G. Forbes Goodbye to Some (1963) 62: It turned out that was exactly what skunked us—too much time on the engine.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 146: It’s got the Galveston juvenile slammer skunked all to hell.
1994		R.P. McNamara Times Square Hustler 57: Some days [...] I get skunked and nobody comes around.
2001		S. King Dreamcatcher 106: If you peg you won’t never get skunked.
2016		Chicago Trib. sect. 4 15 Jan. 4: [headlien] 88th Academy Awards The Nominated and the Skunked.

3. (orig. US tramp, also skunk out) to cheat.

1908		D.G. Phillips Susan Lenox I 261: There’s going to be no skunking about this.
1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 417: Skunk. To swindle.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 171: Skunk. – To cheat or defraud; to inform; to generally act as an undesirable. The same term seems to be behind the further meaning, to defeat in a game of cards.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 818: skunk - To cheat or defraud; to inform.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 327: Zambrano’s people are sending this buffoon to skunk him out.

4. to finish off, to consume.

1904		G.D. Chase ‘Cape Cod Dialect’ in DN II:vi 428: skunk, v. To finish up completely. ‘I gave him a big saucer of pudding but he skunked it all.’.
1934		B. Appel Brain Guy (1937) 1: That skunked a buck. Hell he needed money.

5. to slander, to lie about.

2001

T. Fontana ‘Medium Rare’ Oz ser. 4 ep. 9 [TV script] To cover up his shame he’s going to skunk you on national television.