stinker

noun

1. One who stinks.

   “Skunks are the worst stinkers in the animal kingdom.”

2. (slang)A contemptible person or thing.

   “"Stop squallin', you little stinker!" She struck the child with her open hand across the face.”

   “"But it's far worse for me," said Edmund, "because you'll at least have a room of your own and I shall have to share a bedroom with that record stinker, Eustace."”

   “Never be a stinker, because if you are, though you may flourish for a time like a green bay tree, sooner or later retribution will overtake you.”

   “When you are colonized by dangerous bacteria their presence in your body does no damage. You become a reservoir for those little stinkers.”

3. (slang)Something difficult (e.g. a given puzzle) or unpleasant (e.g. negative review, nasty letter).

   “Today's crossword is a stinker.”

   “I number several authors among my acquaintance […] and they invariably become all of a doodah when they read a stinker in the press about their latest effort.”

   “I sat there seething with fury. And after I had seethed for a bit I rose from my chair, took pen in hand and wrote Bobbie a stinker. […] I accused her in set terms of giving me the heave-ho in order that she could mercenarily marry a richer man. I called her a carrot-topped Jezebel whom I was thankful to have got out of my hair. I... Oh, I can't remember what else I said but, as I say, it was a stinker.”

4. (British, slang)Something of poor quality.

   “The barely-released stinker Dark Tide continues Stockwell’s fetishistic pattern, coming alive whenever it’s paddling among the sharks off the South African coast and settling in for a long snooze once it gets back on the boat or reaches dry land.”

   “Steven Pinker, Rational Thinker: His new book is a stinker. [title]”

   “Now it’s over, let’s come out and say it: The Rings of Power was a stinker [title]”

5. Any of several species of large Antarctic petrels which feed on blubber and carrion and have an offensive odour, such as the giant fulmar.
6. (slang)A chemist.
7. (Australia, slang)A hot day.
8. (Australia, slang)A black eye.
9. (Australia, informal)A western grey kangaroo.
10. (colloquial)A giant petrel.
11. (colloquial)An eastern long-necked turtle (which emits a foul-smelling musk when threatened).