Definition of "stinker"

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

1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019

"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."

1952, C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

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.

1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter II, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins

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

2011, Steven Z. Kussin, Doctor, Your Patient Will See You Now, page 241

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.

1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter V, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins

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.

1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter X, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins

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.

2002 April 19, Scott Tobias, “Dark Tide”, in AV Club‎

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

2021 September 30, Ted McCormick, “Steven Pinker, Rational Thinker”, in Slate‎

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

2022 October 17, Stuart Heritage, “Now it’s over, let’s come out and say it: The Rings of Power was a stinker”, in The Guardian‎