How to Use stink in a Sentence

stink

1 of 2 verb
  • The food is good at that restaurant, but the service stinks.
  • Having a root canal stinks.
  • He got canned because his team stinks.
    — Nick Canepa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Feb. 2026
  • This team stinks without him on the floor.
    — Zach Harper, New York Times, 26 Jan. 2026
  • This is gonna be all day, the meat’s gonna start to stink, etc.
    — Vulture, 14 Nov. 2022
  • That stinks enough on its own, in a 68-team world.
    — Joe Rexrode, New York Times, 13 Mar. 2026
  • The law stinks because this dude could not tell wrong from right.
    — John Archibald | [email protected], al, 25 Oct. 2019
  • For some people, tea bags are the key to stink-free shoes.
    — Meghan Overdeep, Southern Living, 7 Aug. 2025
  • With three kids often comes a lot of mess and, well, stink.
    — Anna Halkidis, Parents, 14 Oct. 2025
  • So why does Idaho stink in this study?
    — Michael Deeds, Idaho Statesman, 19 Aug. 2025
  • Good luck trying to wash that stink off of you in this day and age.
    — Matt Reigle Outkick, FOXNews.com, 28 Apr. 2026
  • The Bills’ rush defense stinks.
    — Troy Renck, Denver Post, 16 Jan. 2026
  • No one says anyone has to accept that the team stinks.
    — Nick Suss, Nashville Tennessean, 13 Oct. 2025
  • Then there are the optics, and the optics stink.
    — Matt Klink, Oc Register, 17 Mar. 2026
  • If the new rules stink, the league can scrap them after one season.
    — Joe Nguyen, The Denver Post, 21 June 2019
  • Their loan portfolio is said to, well, stink.
    — Jim Cramer, CNBC, 1 Mar. 2026
  • His eyes are healthy, although his vision stinks.
    — Literary Hub, 10 Apr. 2026
  • Even if the team stinks, baseball remains good white noise for the home.
    — Mac Engel, star-telegram, 5 May 2018
  • Nix can sling it with Sam Darnold all stinking day.
    — Sean Keeler, Denver Post, 27 Jan. 2026
  • Also, the palace stinks of humans.
    — Keith Phipps, Vulture, 4 Sep. 2025
  • Also, the palace stinks of humans.
    — Keith Phipps, Vulture, 28 Aug. 2025
  • But who cares about stinking elections?
    — Jackie Calmes, Mercury News, 30 Aug. 2025
  • Sewages can stink for many reasons, but one of the main culprits is a clogged pipe.
    — Chandra Fleming, Detroit Free Press, 21 Oct. 2022
  • The train’s toilets began to back up and the air began to stink.
    — Eric Spitznagel, Popular Mechanics, 27 Dec. 2019
  • The economics stink for artists.
    — Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic, 13 Feb. 2026
  • If someone stinks and has options, send him back to the minors.
    — John Shipley, Twin Cities, 22 May 2026
  • The free speech argument stinks.
    — Dp Opinion, Denver Post, 19 Oct. 2025
  • Tanker lorries parked by the roadside suck up stinking waste.
    — The Economist, 24 May 2018
  • There could be many reasons why your furry friend may stink, even after a bath.
    — Amber Smith, Discover Magazine, 23 Oct. 2022
  • The old dog slowed to a stop, nose full of bird stink, feathery tail quivering.
    — Joel M. Vance, Outdoor Life, 29 Oct. 2025

stink

2 of 2 noun
  • Just causing a stink to cause one.
    — Soo Kim, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 Aug. 2025
  • His stink didn’t get too much on me, to be honest.
    — Mike Fleming Jr, Deadline, 26 Nov. 2025
  • And how, really, that word has got such a stink on it.
    — Stephen Schaefer, Boston Herald, 25 May 2026
  • The sewage stink had been a subject of complaints for more than three years.
    — Jesse Leavenworth, courant.com, 17 Sep. 2021
  • With the monster vanquished, the stink of evil can begin to be scrubbed away.
    — Chris Wiley, The New Yorker, 10 Jan. 2024
  • For him, the most revolting thing about his life in Iran was its pervasive stink.
    — Amir Ahmadi Arian, The Dial, 15 Jan. 2026
  • Follow our steps to clean the trash can liner, eliminating germs and the stink in the process.
    — Brandee Gruener, Southern Living, 19 Oct. 2025
  • Unlike those two-stroke trimmers, this is a fraction of the noise and–of course–there’s no stink from exhaust fumes.
    — Roy Berendsohn, Popular Mechanics, 25 Apr. 2023
  • Give me some rats, some City Hall cronyism; evoke the stink of trash on an August day.
    — Vulture, 26 Apr. 2023
  • Dog owners have shared horror stories about the lingering stink.
    — Pete Grathoff, Kansas City Star, 25 June 2026
  • The stink began long before the fermentation set in.
    — Shindy Chen, Charlotte Observer, 13 Mar. 2026
  • My small room seemed to be visibly clouded by the stink of my body and the stink of my superfluous thinking.
    — Literary Hub, 17 Feb. 2026
  • The stink from the second apartment led one neighbor to place an air purifier in the hallway.
    — Emma Seiwell, New York Daily News, 24 Jan. 2026
  • The raw sewage rises to the surface, adding to the unbearable stink, which spreads and worsens with every passing day.
    — Eli Sharabi, Time, 1 Oct. 2025
  • From another room somewhere, the stink of cigarettes wafted in.
    — Literary Hub, 27 Apr. 2026
  • Without a stink, a grimy dishwasher still deserves a deep clean to restore its shine and efficiency.
    — Patricia Shannon, Southern Living, 23 June 2026
  • Without a stink, a grimy dishwasher still deserves a deep clean to restore its shine and efficiency.
    — Patricia Shannon, Southern Living, 10 Nov. 2025
  • Until then, the air quality might remain a bit lower than usual, and those smelling the stink may smell it still for a little while longer.
    — Ahmad Bajjey, CBS News, 6 Feb. 2026
  • No date for an OpenAI IPO has been set, but today’s suit may have put a stink on it, for now.
    — Dominic Patten, Deadline, 1 June 2026
  • The shawl collar gives extra warmth and padding, and otherwise creates a dignified look—like a smoking jacket without the stink.
    — Julia Harrison, Architectural Digest, 2 Feb. 2026
  • Fowler added, though, if someone wants to make a big stink about fraud without any actual evidence, that inaccuracy is the perfect sleight of hand.
    — Los Angeles Times, 11 June 2026
  • But even with his strong 2025 performance, Winters doesn’t have the clout to make a stink about a contract extension.
    — Matt Barrows, New York Times, 23 Jan. 2026
  • Stinky Dishwasher When food gets trapped in the filter, gaskets, or baskets in your dishwasher, bacteria grow and create a stink.
    — Brandee Gruener, Southern Living, 15 Feb. 2026
  • Even worse — in some parts of Africa and Pacific islands, elephant foot yam is Amorphophallus paeonifolius — that’s right, a relative of the big stink, corpse flower!
    — Paul Cappiello, Louisville Courier Journal, 7 Nov. 2025
  • The display left even more of a stink given the history of the Jewish State at the Games and the Munich 1972 hostage massacre.
    — Dominic Patten, Deadline, 6 Feb. 2026
  • Koutroulis said the county has instituted various mitigation measures to suppress the stink, including misting systems, industrial fans and soil to cover waste.
    — Claire Wang, Oc Register, 10 Feb. 2026
  • Christopher Nolan, now king of the multiplex, hasn’t taken a film to a festival since Insomnia in 2002, while, after Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull emerged from the 2008 Cannes with a mild stink from mixed reviews, Steven Spielberg probably didn’t want to.
    — Alison Willmore, Vulture, 27 May 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'stink.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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