musk

plural musks

1. countableuncountableA greasy secretion with a powerful odour, produced in a glandular sac of the male musk deer and used in the manufacture of perfumes.

   An old medical record relates that by means of musk the genital power of a man in his eightieth year was resuscitated.

   1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 160

   1 more example

   Your onely way to make a good pomander, is this. Take an ownce of the pureſt garden mould, clenſed and ſteeped ſeauen daies in change of motherleſſe roſe water, then take the beſt Labdanum, Benioine, both Storaxes, amber greece, and Ciuet, and muſke, incorporate them together, and work them into what form you pleaſe; this, if your breath bee not to valiant, will make you ſmell as ſweete as my Ladies dogge.

   1607, [attributed to Thomas Tomkis], Lingva: Or The Combat of the Tongue, and the Five Senses for Superiority. A Pleasant Comœdie., London: Printed by G[eorge] Eld, for Simon Waterson, →OCLC, act IV, scene iii

2. countableuncountableA similar secretion produced by the otter and the civet.
3. countableuncountableA synthetic organic compound used as a substitute for the above.
4. countableuncountableThe odour of musk.
5. countableslanguncountablevulgarBody odor, especially when aroused or unwashed.

   I was so excited I could smell my own musk.

   1 more example

   It turned out that Zach was just one of many gay men who is into the concept of “man scent” (also often called “man musk”), achieved by avoiding the deodorant and manufactured fragrances that interfere with the raw, natural odors of sex.

   2020 February 28, Phillip Picardi, The Season’s Hottest Scent Is...B.O.?, archived from the original on 01 Mar 2020

6. countableuncountableA musk deer (genus Moschus).
7. countableuncountableA muskflower (Erythranthe moschata).
8. countableuncountableA plant of the genus Erodium (Erodium moschatum); the musky heronsbill.
9. countableuncountableA plant of the genus Muscari; grape hyacinth.
10. AustraliacountableuncountableA small tree or tall shrub, Olearia argophylla, of south-eastern mainland Australia and Tasmania, with leaves that produce a musky aroma.

    [W]here the gullies are fringed with blackwoods, wattle, myrtles, musks and sassafras[.]

    1951, Ambrose Pratt, The Lore of the Lyrebird, Melbourne: Robertson and Mullens, page 58

present singular third person musks · participle present musking · participle past musked · past musked

1. transitiveTo perfume with musk.

plural Musks

1. A surname.

   Since the announcement, Musk reposted claims on his social media platform X that $20,000 of American tax dollars are spent on drag shows in Ecuador, $750,000 to operate the fire alarm at the New York Metropolitan Opera House, and $350,000 to develop AI smart toilets.

   2024 November 14, Rhian Lubin, “What is DOGE? Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency led by Musk and Ramaswamy”, in The Independent

2. A locality in the Shire of Hepburn, central western Victoria, Australia.

1. abbreviationbiochemistryAbbreviation of muscle-specific kinase.