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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
stench
noun
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ I couldn't bear to go in the room with its stench of beer and vomit.
▪ The dead body had begun to rot, and the stench was overpowering.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A Manx shearwater colony has a particularly powerful stench.
▪ She became gradually aware of an awful stench.
▪ The stench cut straight through to his stomach.
▪ The stench of blood and waste sickened him.
▪ The stench of the fuel floated above the pond Monday and rainbow slicks could be seen near its mouth.
▪ The first week he vomited daily from the stench of the feces and offal and rotting meat.
▪ The slime they exude is obnoxious and slippery, and has the stench of rotting fish.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Stench

Stench \Stench\, v. t. To stanch. [Obs.]
--Harvey.

Stench

Stench \Stench\, n. [AS. stenc a strong smell, fr. stincan. See Stink, v. i.]

  1. A smell; an odor. [Obs.]

    Clouds of savory stench involve the sky.
    --Dryden.

  2. An ill smell; an offensive odor; a stink.
    --Cowper.

    Stench trap, a contrivance to prevent stench or foul air from rising from the openings of sewers, drains, etc.

Stench

Stench \Stench\, v. t. [AS. stencan to emit a smell, fr. stincan to smell. See Stench, n.] To cause to emit a disagreeable odor; to cause to stink. [Obs.]
--Young.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
stench

Old English stenc "a smell, odor, scent, fragrance" (either pleasant or unpleasant), from Proto-Germanic *stankwiz (cognates: Old Saxon stanc, Old High German stanch, German stank). Related to stincan "emit a smell" (see stink (v.)) as drench is to drink. It tended toward "bad smell" in Old English (as a verb, only with this sense), and the notion of "evil smell" has predominated since c.1200.

Wiktionary
stench

n. 1 a strong foul smell, a stink 2 (context figurative English) a foul quality 3 (context obsolete English) A smell or odour, not necessarily bad. vb. 1 (context obsolete English) To cause to emit a disagreeable odour; to cause to stink. 2 To stanch.

WordNet
stench

n. a distinctive odor that is offensively unpleasant [syn: malodor, malodour, stink, reek, fetor, foetor, mephitis]

Usage examples of "stench".

At times the Great North Road accompanied her, more suggestive of infinity than any railway, awakening, after a nap of a hundred years, to such life as is conferred by the stench of motor-cars, and to such culture as is implied by the advertisements of antibilious pills.

Incidentally, it got its name from the Greek bromos, which means stench.

And what could be more symbolic, nay, indicative of the Black Death than the excrementious stench of corpses rotting in the streets?

It was a grim fate which awaited them, the confinement and pain of the benches, the weight of the long oars, the shackles, the whip, the drum of the hortator, the stench, the black bread and onions of the ponderous galleys.

She had gone some way before the scent of wine, mixed with the bitter-sweet stench of stale cooking from the great abbey kitchens above, told her that she was nearing the section of the hypogeum reserved for the storage of wine.

Had Gromph not been trapped in the sphere, he knew his nostrils would have been assaulted by the rank, foul odor of the pseudoplane, the stench of the malformed creatures that called it home.

Dying embers still glowed in the hearth, awaiting another stirring to life at morningtide, while the stench of stale ale, peat smoke, and sweat seemed to hang close above their heads, held there by the low ceiling.

Buddhist, or because of the indelible memory of that stench on a Manchurian plain, Major Kikuchi never ate meat, which allowed him to be as mobile as Munk in Turkey.

True, he had not consciously expected Hempnell to manifest any physical stench of evil, any outward sign of a poisonous inward neurosis -- or whatever it was he was battling.

At that moment, the pearlescent glow flickered, and Riane almost gagged, for on a particularly strong updraft of air came the sickening stench of bitterroot.

Furtig tested the air for Ratton stench but was only a fraction relieved at its absence.

And if they were prisoners in a place where there was so strong a stench of Ratton, he could well guess who their captors were.

No Ratton stench, nothing but the acrid odor common to all these levels.

He could smell and taste the anger, frustration and complete bewilderment of the other survivors which hung like the stench of rotting flesh in the cold, grey air.

The air was heavy with the sickening stench of rotting food and rotting flesh.