Skunkworks
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 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."
Example
More examples"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."
Etymology
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.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.