I won't date Mary Jane again. I thought she was a stinker to leave before the end of the movie.
1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, 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.
(slang) Something difficult (e.g. a given puzzle) or unpleasant (e.g. negative review, nasty letter).
Today's crossword is a stinker.
1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, I number several authors among my aquaintance ... and they invariably become all of a doodah when they read a stinker in the press about their latest effort.
1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, 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.
(slang) Something of poor quality.
April 19 2002, Scott Tobias, AV Club Dark Tidehttp://www.avclub.com/articles/dark-tide,72548/The barely-released stinkerDark 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.
