idiom

what does making a stink mean

[queenbu]

Idiom:
make/raise a stink Slang
To make a great fuss.


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[Middle English stinken, from Old English stincan, to emit a smell.]
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stinky adj.


Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.


make a stink

Also, raise a stink. Create a great fuss; complain, criticize, or otherwise make trouble about something. For example, They promised to fix the printer today; you needn't make a stink about it, or The parents were raising a stink about the principal's new rules. This idiom transfers an offensive odor to a public fuss. [Mid-1800s] .