sting definition | Dictionary.com

sting

[sting]

,verb, stung or (Obsolete

) stang; stung; sting⋅ing; noun

–verb (used with object)

1.	to prick or wound with a sharp-pointed, often venom-bearing organ.

2.	to affect painfully or irritatingly as a result of contact, as certain plants do: to be stung by nettles.

3.	to cause to smart or to cause a sharp pain: The blowing sand stung his eyes.

4.	to cause mental or moral anguish: to be stung with remorse.

5.	to goad or drive, as by sharp irritation.

6.	Slang. to cheat or take advantage of, esp. to overcharge; soak.

–verb (used without object)

7.	to use, have, or wound with a sting, as bees.

8.	to cause a sharp, smarting pain, as some plants, an acrid liquid or gas, or a slap or hit.

9.	to cause acute mental pain or irritation, as annoying thoughts or one's conscience: The memory of that insult still stings.

10.	to feel acute mental pain or irritation: He was stinging from the blow to his pride.

11.	to feel a smarting pain, as from a blow or the sting of an insect.

–noun

12.	an act or an instance of stinging.

13.	a wound, pain, or smart caused by stinging.

14.	any sharp physical or mental wound, hurt, or pain.

15.	anything or an element in anything that wounds, pains, or irritates: to feel the sting of defeat; Death, where is thy sting?

16.	capacity to wound or pain: Satire has a sting.

17.	a sharp stimulus or incitement: driven by the sting of jealousy; the sting of ambition.

18.	Botany. a glandular hair on certain plants, as nettles, that emits an irritating fluid.

19.	Zoology. any of various sharp-pointed, often venom-bearing organs of insects and other animals capable of inflicting painful or dangerous wounds.

20.

Slang.

a.	confidence game.

b.	an ostensibly illegal operation, as the buying of stolen goods or the bribing of public officials, used by undercover investigators to collect evidence of wrongdoing.

Origin:
bef. 900; (v.) ME stingen, OE stingan to pierce; c. ON stinga to pierce, Goth -stangan (in usstangan to pull out); (n.) ME sting(e), OE: act of stinging, deriv. of the v.

Related forms:

sting⋅ing⋅ly, adverb

stingless, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To sting

sting (stĭng)

v. stung (stŭng), sting·ing, stings

v. tr.

To pierce or wound painfully with or as if with a sharp-pointed structure or organ, as that of certain insects.
To cause to feel a sharp, smarting pain by or as if by pricking with a sharp point: smoke stinging our eyes.
To cause to suffer keenly in the mind or feelings: Those harsh words stung me bitterly.
To spur on by or as if by sharp irritation.
Slang To cheat or overcharge.

v. intr.

To have, use, or wound with or as if with a sharp-pointed structure or organ, as that of certain insects.
To cause or feel a sharp, smarting pain.

The act of stinging.
The wound or pain caused by or as if by stinging.
A sharp, piercing organ or part, often ejecting a venomous secretion, as the modified ovipositor of a bee or wasp or the spine of certain fishes.
A stinging power, quality, or capacity.
A keen stimulus or incitement; a goad or spur: the sting of curiosity.
Slang A complicated confidence game planned and executed with great care, especially an operation organized and implemented by undercover agents to apprehend criminals.

[Middle English stingen, from Old English stingan; see stegh- in Indo-European roots.]
sting'ing·ly adv.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Sting

Sting\, n. [AS. sting a sting. See Sting, v. t.]

1. (Zo["o]l.) Any sharp organ of offense and defense, especially when connected with a poison gland, and adapted to inflict a wound by piercing; as the caudal sting of a scorpion. The sting of a bee or wasp is a modified ovipositor. The caudal sting, or spine, of a sting ray is a modified dorsal fin ray. The term is sometimes applied to the fang of a serpent. See Illust. of Scorpion.

2. (Bot.) A sharp-pointed hollow hair seated on a gland which secrets an acrid fluid, as in nettles. The points of these hairs usually break off in the wound, and the acrid fluid is pressed into it.

3. Anything that gives acute pain, bodily or mental; as, the stings of remorse; the stings of reproach.

The sting of death is sin. --1 Cor. xv. 56.

4. The thrust of a sting into the flesh; the act of stinging; a wound inflicted by stinging. "The lurking serpent's mortal sting." --Shak.

5. A goad; incitement. --Shak.

6. The point of an epigram or other sarcastic saying.

Sting moth (Zo["o]l.), an Australian moth (Doratifera vulnerans) whose larva is armed, at each end of the body, with four tubercles bearing powerful stinging organs.

Sting ray. (Zo["o]l.) See under 6th Ray.

Sting winkle (Zo["o]l.), a spinose marine univalve shell of the genus Murex, as the European species (Murex erinaceus). See Illust. of Murex.

Sting

Sting\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Stung(Archaic Stang); p. pr. & vb. n. Stinging.] [AS. stingan; akin to Icel. & Sw. stinga, Dan. stinge, and probably to E. stick, v.t.; cf. Goth. usstiggan to put out, pluck out. Cf. Stick, v. t.]

1. To pierce or wound with a sting; as, bees will sting an animal that irritates them; the nettles stung his hands.

2. To pain acutely; as, the conscience is stung with remorse; to bite. "Slander stings the brave." --Pope.

3. To goad; to incite, as by taunts or reproaches.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : sting

Spanish: aguijón,

German: der Stachel,

Japanese: とげ

More Translations »

sting (v.)

O.E. stingan "to prick with a small point" (of weapons, insects, plants, etc.), from P.Gmc. *stenganan (cf. O.N. stinga, O.H.G. stungen "to prick," Goth. us-stagg "to prick out," O.H.G. stanga, Ger. stange "pole, perch," Ger. stengel "stalk, stem"), from PIE *stengh-, nasalized form of base *stegh- "to prick, sting" (cf. O.E. stagga "stag," Gk. stokhos "pointed stake"). Specialized to insects late 15c. Slang meaning "to cheat, swindle" is from 1812. The noun is O.E. stincg, steng "act of stinging, stinging pain;" meaning "carefully planned theft or robbery" is attested from 1930; sense of "police undercover entrapment" first attested 1975. Sting ray is from 1624.

Main Entry: sting
Function: noun
: an elaborate confidence game; specifically : such a game worked by undercover police in order to catch criminals

Main Entry: ¹sting
Pronunciation: 'sti[ng]
Function: verb
Inflected Forms: stung /'st&[ng]/; sting·ing /'sti[ng]-i[ng]/
transitive senses
: to prick painfully: as a : to pierce or wound with a poisonous or irritating process b : toaffect with sharp quick pain sting intransitive senses
: to feel or cause a keen burning pain or smart stung>

Main Entry: ²sting
Function: noun
1 a : the act of stinging; specifically : the thrust of a stinger into the flesh b : a wound or pain caused by or as if by stinging
2 : STINGER

sting (stĭng)
v. stung (stŭng), sting·ing, stings

To pierce or wound painfully with or as if with a sharp-pointed structure or organ, as that of certain insects.
To introduce venom by stinging.
To cause to feel a sharp smarting pain by or as if by pricking with a sharp point.

The act of stinging.
The wound or pain caused by or as if by stinging.
The venom apparatus of a stinging organism.

STING
A parallel dialect of Scheme intended to serve as a high-level operating system for symbolic programming languages. First-class threads and processors and customisable scheduling policies.
E-mail: .
["A Customizable Substrate for Concurrent Languages", S. Jagannathan et al, ACM SIGPLAN Notices, 1992].
(1994-11-03)

sting

see take the sting out of.

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