"They won't do a biopsy of the mass, those tumors bleed like stink" This was the 3rd time in a week that I had heard this phrase - "bleed like stink". I try to imagine what this could possibly refer to. Unfortunately this leads to images of blood droplets micronized and floating in the air, being inhaled by the doctors and nurses by someone's bedside. NOT what it means. Blood doesn't smell, and stinking doesn't seem at all related to bleeding. The phrase is used to mean 'bleed A LOT', tons and tons...but why the phrase? It's one recognized widely, but who's ever said WHY? I did some research. It was tough to find - but here's what I know:
According to the Oxford English dictionary "like stink" is a pretty generic modifier meaning 'intensely' or 'furiously'. In other words its an expletive- "If I see a snake, I'm going to run like stink" - The phrase 'mad as stink' came to be an alternative to saying 'mad as hell' in old English. Somewhere along the way, then, instead of saying bleed like hell - or bleeding intensely, bleed like stink came to be. Interesting.
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