Also 7 stinckard, -erd, stinkarde, 8 stincard. [f. STINK v. + -ARD.]
1. One who stinks. Formerly often used as a term of abuse. Now rare or Obs.
c. 1600. Timon, I. ii. (1842), 6. Out, out, thou stinckard, mans grand enemy.
1601. B. Jonson, Poetaster, IV. i. The Gods were a sort of Goslinges, when they suffred so sweete a breath to perfume the bed of a stinkard.
1612. Chapman, Widows’ T., I. i. C 3 b. Your vnapprehending Stinckerd is blest with the sole prerogatiue of his Wiues chamber.
1684. Otway, Atheist, I. i. 7. The most insufferable Stinkard living.
1700. Congreve, Way of World, IV. xi. Your Turks are infidels, and believe not in the grape: your Mahometan, your Mussulman is a dry Stinkard.
† b. See quot. 1777. Also attrib. Obs.
1777. Robertson, Hist. Amer., IV. (1778), I. 344. Among the Natchez … Some families were reputed noble…. The body of the people were considered as vile…. The former were called Respectable; the latter the Stinkards.
1792. W. Bartram, Trav. Carolina, 464. Those numerous remnant bands or tribes … generally speak the Stincard language.
2. A name given to various ill-smelling animals.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., III. 380. The Stinkards. This is a name which our sailors give to one or two animals of the weasel kind, which are chiefly found in America. Ibid., IV. 80. [The musk rat] is denominated by them [the savages of Canada] the stinkard.
1822. Southey, in Q. Rev., XXVI. 281. The stinkard, who it seems is a sure shot at five feet distance, retreated leisurely … and stopt when the unhappy Jesuit drew nigh.
1843. J. E. Gray, List Mammalia Brit. Mus., 69. The Stinkard or Teledu. Mydaus meliceps. Java.
3. A shark of the genus Mustelus.
1883. Day, Fishes Gt. Brit., II. 296. Mustelus vulgaris.… Smooth-hound,… Stinkard, in Ireland, due to its colour.
4. = STINKER 5, STINK POT 3.
1850. Scoresby, Cheever’s Whaleman’s Adv., iii. (1858), 40. Gonies, stinkards, horse-birds … had all many a good morsel of blubber.
