Meanings
alternative skunk works
- A loosely organized research and development team or facility.
Not all ideas coming out of the Phillips skunkworks have been success stories, of course. A polyethelene saddle never even made it through the patent process.
1998 January 19, Teresa Riordan, “When it comes to number of patents, the petroleum industry is a veritable gusher”, in The New York Times, →ISSN1 more example
Downing Street is seeking applications for a £135,000-a-year data expert to set up a “skunkworks” in No 10, in the latest evidence of Dominic Cummings’ Whitehall shake-up.
2020 July 10, Heather Stewart, “Downing Street seeks data expert to set up ‘skunkworks’ in No 10”, in The Guardian
Origin
From skunk + works, since c. 1943. Skunk Works was the nickname of Lockheed Advanced Development Projects, eventually gaining official recognition. The name is derived from a mysterious, foul-smelling “skonk oil”-brewing facility called the Skonk Works in the comic strip L'il Abner by Al Capp.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
skunkworks. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/skunkworks
“skunkworks.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/skunkworks. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “skunkworks,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/skunkworks.
Source: skunkworks on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.