skank n.1
1. (orig. US black) an unattractive, easily available woman.
Carlito’s Way 43: When you’re in, the worst shank you ever had becomes like a movie star. | ||
Panic in Needle Park (1971) 29: She’s not like these other scanks around here. She’s real nice. | ||
(con. 1950s) Grease I ii: One of those skanks we’ve seen around. | ||
Mean Streets [film script] 86: Girls? You call those skanks girls? | ||
(con. 1960s) Wanderers 33: His sister was a royal skank who fucked for a dime. | ||
Campus Sl. Fall 6: skank – pick-up prospects, sluts. | ||
Bonfire of the Vanities 113: One of those thin nervous skanks who were always irritable and difficult and lacking in femininity. | ||
Sl. U. 171: skank 1. cheap-looking, ugly, unprincipled, snooty, or condescending girl, bitch. | ||
Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 341: We gonna freak this skank when her head gets bad. | ||
8 Ball Chicks (1998) 107: They were just skanks, bitches, sleazes, easy lays. Hos. | ||
Sydney Morning Herald (Aus.) 6 Jan. n.p.: So here’s a tentative guide to Sydney teenspeak: [...] Skank (a girl who is perceived to be ‘easy’). | ||
Mean Girls [movie script] It was time to turn our attention to the army of skanks. | ||
Times (2) 30 Apr. 7/4: A psychotic, whoring [...] skank. | ||
(con. 1973) Johnny Porno 28: Tommy DeLuca left a trail of skanks he was sleeping with. | ||
Kimberly’s Capital Punishment (2023) 174: A rubber-gloved tramp-skank. | ||
Artefacts of the Dead [ebook] He didn’t see anyone paying for an all-nighter with a skank like Leanne. | ||
Squeeze Me 326: ‘This is a skank-free zone. You’ll have to take your babes somewhere else’. |
2. (US black) a female who smells badly.
Runnin’ Down Some Lines 144: Skunk, skank, and bait refer to a female who smells badly. | ||
Campus Sl. Apr. | ||
Handbook for Boys 106: ‘I don’t mess with no funky women [...] If they don’t keep themselves clean and nice, I don’t even talk to them. If you see some skank [...] she won’t be on my arm’. |
3. (US) a prostitute.
Q&A 169: All I want is a little boy action. I’m tired of those syphilated skanks uptown. | ||
Portable Promised Land (ms.) 156: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Stank. Gank. Skank. Stomp. | ||
Leather Maiden 213: ‘They wanted me to pay for some skank they managed who didn’t know how to give a blow-job’. | ||
On the Bro’d 84: I totally thought she was a hustler skank. |
4. (US campus) a repulsive person of either sex.
On the Pad 162: If you don’t have your own apartment, you’re some kind of skank. | ||
Campus Sl. Mar. | ||
Campus Sl. Sept. 6: an unlikeable or mean person. | ||
Nature Girl 12: Go screw yourself, you dried up old skank. | ||
(con. 1973) Johnny Porno 62: [She] might even flirt a little with the bartender if he wasn’t a skank. |
5. (US) filth, malevolence, dirtiness.
(con. 1980s) i80s.com 🌐 skank 1. Physically dirty, filth. | ||
Chicken (2003) 9: I curl into the skank of the mattress. | ||
Destination: Morgue! (2004) 352: She skimmed skank in the National Tattler. | ‘Jungletown Jihad’ in||
Widespread Panic 28: ‘You’ve got better skank than this [...] I could give your three issues’ worth’. |
6. an unsatisfactory situation.
Sydney Morning Herald (Aus.) 6 Jan. n.p.: So here’s a tentative guide to Sydney teenspeak: [...] Skank (a displeasing situation). |
7. a mean, mercenary person.
OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 skank n. [...] mercenary or thrifty (in a ‘picking pennies out of the bin’ kind of way) You skanky b*****d, you are such a skank! |
8. (also skankface) on bad = good model, an affectionate term of address.
Campus Sl. Fall 10: SKANK – common nickname or greeting: ‘Hey, SKANK, how was class today?’ Also SKANKFACE. |
In derivatives
(US campus) sexy.
UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2014 Fall 6: SKANKTASTIC — skank + fantastic modestly sexual: ‘That skanktastic dress is perfect for the club’. |