stinking

Etymology 1

From Middle English stynkynge, stinkinge, stinkinde, stinkende, stynkande, stynkand, from Old English stincende, from Proto-Germanic *stinkwandz (“stinking”), present participle of Proto-Germanic *stinkwaną (“to stink”), equivalent to stink + -ing. Cognate with Dutch stinkend (“stinking, stinky”), German stinkend (“stinking, stinky”), Danish stinkende (“stinking, stinky”), Norwegian stinkende (“stinking, stinky”).

adj

1. Having a pungent smell.
2. Very bad and undesirable.
   Despite leading the way for years, the new model is really stinking.
3. (slang) Very drunk.
   Oh, I got stinking—and, worse, acted like the world's worst heel to top it off. I passed out mentally about the time we left the club—which must have been around 2:30—but unfortunately didn't pass out physically. 2021, Mack Morriss, South Pacific Diary, 1942-1943
4. (euphemistic) An intensifier, a hypallage.
   We don’t need your stinking sympathy.

verb

1. present participle and gerund of stink

Etymology 2

From Middle English stinkinge, stynkynge, equivalent to stink + -ing.

noun

1. The emission of a foul smell.
   From the magnificent ejaculation of the Waimangu geyser, to the tiniest of gaseous emissions, descriptions of the thermal reserve were rife with dischargings, bubblings and stinkings, quiverings and palpitations, orifices and protuberances. 2013, Phaedra. C Pezzullo, Cultural Studies and Environment, Revisited, page 42