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Word Meanings - SKUNK - Book Publishers vocabulary database

Any one of several species of American musteline carnivores of the genus Mephitis and allied genera. They have two glands near the anus, secreting an extremely fetid liquid, which the animal ejects at pleasure as a means of defense. Note: The common

Additional info about word: SKUNK

Any one of several species of American musteline carnivores of the genus Mephitis and allied genera. They have two glands near the anus, secreting an extremely fetid liquid, which the animal ejects at pleasure as a means of defense. Note: The common species of the Eastern United States (Mephitis mephitica) is black with more or less white on the body and tail. The spotted skunk , native of the Southwestern United States and Mexico, is smaller than the common skunk, and is variously marked with black and white. Skunk bird, Skunk blackbird , the bobolink; -- so called because the male, in the breeding season, is black and white, like a skunk. -- Skunk cabbage , an American aroid herb (Symplocarpus foetidus) having a reddish hornlike spathe in earliest spring, followed by a cluster of large cabbagelike leaves. It exhales a disagreeable odor. Also called swamp cabbage. -- Skunk porpoise. See under Porpoise.

Related words: (words related to SKUNK)

  • ANIMALIZATION
    1. The act of animalizing; the giving of animal life, or endowing with animal properties. 2. Conversion into animal matter by the process of assimilation. Owen.
  • ANIMALCULISM
    The theory which seeks to explain certain physiological and pathological by means of animalcules.
  • ALLICIENT
    That attracts; attracting. -- n.
  • ALLINEATION; ALINEEATION
    Alignment; position in a straight line, as of two planets with the sun. Whewell. The allineation of the two planets. C. A. Young.
  • MUSTELINE
    Like or pertaining to the family Mustelidæ, or the weasels and martens.
  • ANIMALITY
    Animal existence or nature. Locke.
  • COMMONER
    1. One of the common people; one having no rank of nobility. All below them even their children, were commoners, and in the eye law equal to each other. Hallam. 2. A member of the House of Commons. 3. One who has a joint right in common ground.
  • MEPHITIS
    A genus of mammals, including the skunks. (more info) 1. Noxious, pestilential, or foul exhalations from decomposing substances, filth, or other source.
  • SECRETE
    To separate from the blood and elaborate by the process of secretion; to elaborate and emit as a secretion. See Secretion. Why one set of cells should secrete bile, another urea, and so on, we do not known. Carpenter. Syn. -- To conceal; hide. See
  • ALLITERAL
    Pertaining to, or characterized by alliteration.
  • AMERICANIZATION
    The process of Americanizing.
  • GENERABILITY
    Capability of being generated. Johnstone.
  • GENERALIZED
    Comprising structural characters which are separated in more specialized forms; synthetic; as, a generalized type.
  • FETIDNESS
    The quality or state of being fetid.
  • ANIMALLY
    Physically. G. Eliot.
  • ANIMALNESS
    Animality.
  • GENERALIZABLE
    Capable of being generalized, or reduced to a general form of statement, or brought under a general rule. Extreme cases are . . . not generalizable. Coleridge
  • GENERA
    See GENUS
  • ALLITERATOR
    One who alliterates.
  • GENERANT
    Generative; producing; esp. ,
  • GALLIASS
    See GALLEASS
  • UNDERSECRETARY
    A secretary who is subordinate to the chief secretary; an assistant secretary; as, an undersecretary of the Treasury.
  • DALLIANCE
    1. The act of dallying, trifling, or fondling; interchange of caresses; wanton play. Look thou be true, do not give dalliance Too mnch the rein. Shak. O, the dalliance and the wit, The flattery and the strifeTennyson. 2. Delay or procrastination.
  • MAJOR GENERAL
    . An officer of the army holding a rank next above that of brigadier general and next below that of lieutenant general, and who usually commands a division or a corps.
  • KAKARALLI
    A kind of wood common in Demerara, durable in salt water, because not subject to the depredations of the sea worm and barnacle.
  • SCALLION
    A kind of small onion , native of Palestine; the eschalot, or shallot. 2. Any onion which does not "bottom out," but remains with a thick stem like a leek. Amer. Cyc.
  • CORALLIGENOUS
    producing coral; coraligerous; coralliferous. Humble.
  • UNCOMMON
    Not common; unusual; infrequent; rare; hence, remarkable; strange; as, an uncommon season; an uncommon degree of cold or heat; uncommon courage. Syn. -- Rare; scarce; infrequent; unwonted. -- Un*com"mon*ly, adv. -- Un*com"mon*ness, n.
  • UNREGENERACY
    The quality or state of being unregenerate. Glanvill.
  • COWPER'S GLANDS
    Two small glands discharging into the male urethra.
  • REALLIANCE
    A renewed alliance.
  • IMPALLID
    To make pallid; to blanch. Feltham.
  • HEMEROCALLIS
    A genus of plants, some species of which are cultivated for their beautiful flowers; day lily.
  • HAEMATOCRYSTALLIN
    See HEMATOCRYSTALLIN
  • FELLOW-COMMONER
    A student at Cambridge University, England, who commons, or dines, at the Fellow's table.
  • CRYSTALLIZATION
    The act or process by which a substance in solidifying assumes the form and sructure of a crystal, or becomes crystallized. 2. The body formed by crystallizing; as, silver on precipitation forms arborescent crystallizations. Note: The systems of
  • MISALLIED
    Wrongly allied or associated.

 

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