sting

[sting] /stɪŋ/
verb (used with object), stung or (Obsolete) stang; stung; stinging.
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, especially to overcharge; soak.
verb (used without object), stung or (Obsolete) stang; stung; stinging.
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.
  1. confidence game.
  2. 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
before 900; (v.) Middle English stingen, Old English stingan to pierce; cognate with Old Norse stinga to pierce, Gothic -stangan (in usstangan to pull out); (noun) Middle English sting(e), Old English: act of stinging, derivative of the v.
Related forms
stingingly, adverb
stingless, adjective
outsting, verb (used with object), outstung, outstinging.
resting, verb, restung, restinging.
unstinging, adjective
unstingingly, adverb
Examples from the web for sting
  • Having no hive to defend, they're not aggressive and rarely sting.
  • The sting from the sap was almost unbearable, and dousing my eyes with water did nothing to help.
  • Most sting-treatment products feature vinegar, the best remedy for jelly venom.
  • The pound of marijuana had been supplied by the local sheriff's department, as part of a sting.
  • The flavor is lightly sour, with none of the harsh vinegar sting of many unflavored yogurts.
  • It runs elaborate sting operations to try to prevent corporate officials from trading on inside information.
  • In a sting operation he confiscated video-poker machines from allegedly mob-connected taverns and put them in a secured room.
  • The frog believes it is safe because it would not be in the scorpion's self interest to sting it midstream.
  • Soon the fumes wafted up to our position and our eyes began to sting, forcing us to return to our apartment.
  • But such comments were always kindly or marked by a light and playful touch, devoid of sting.
British Dictionary definitions for sting

sting

/stɪŋ/
verb stings, stinging, stung
1.
(of certain animals and plants) to inflict a wound on (an organism) by the injection of poison
2.
to feel or cause to feel a sharp mental or physical pain
3.
(transitive) to goad or incite (esp in the phrase sting into action)
4.
(transitive) (informal) to cheat, esp by overcharging
noun
5.
a skin wound caused by the poison injected by certain insects or plants
6.
pain caused by or as if by the sting of a plant or animal
7.
a mental pain or pang: a sting of conscience
8.
a sharp pointed organ, such as the ovipositor of a wasp, by which poison can be injected into the prey
9.
the ability to sting: a sharp sting in his criticism
10.
something as painful or swift of action as a sting: the sting of death
11.
a sharp stimulus or incitement
12.
(botany) another name for stinging hair
13.
(slang) a swindle or fraud
14.
(slang) a trap set up by the police to entice a person to commit a crime and thereby produce evidence
15.
sting in the tail, an unexpected and unpleasant ending
Derived Forms
stinging, adjective
stingingly, adverb
stingingness, noun
Word Origin
Old English stingan; related to Old Norse stinga to pierce, Gothic usstangan to pluck out, Greek stakhus ear of corn
Word Origin and History for sting
v.

Old English stingan "to prick with a small point" (of weapons, insects, plants, etc.), from Proto-Germanic *stenganan (cf. Old Norse stinga, Old High German stungen "to prick," Gothic us-stagg "to prick out," Old High German stanga, German stange "pole, perch," German stengel "stalk, stem"), from PIE *stengh-, nasalized form of root *stegh- "to prick, sting" (cf. Old English stagga "stag," Greek stokhos "pointed stake"). Specialized to insects late 15c. Slang meaning "to cheat, swindle" is from 1812.

n.

Old English stincg, steng "act of stinging, stinging pain," from the root of sting (v.). Meaning "carefully planned theft or robbery" is attested from 1930; sense of "police undercover entrapment" first attested 1975.

sting in Medicine

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

  1. To pierce or wound painfully with or as if with a sharp-pointed structure or organ, as that of certain insects.

  2. To introduce venom by stinging.

  3. To cause to feel a sharp smarting pain by or as if by pricking with a sharp point.

n.

  1. The act of stinging.

  2. The wound or pain caused by or as if by stinging.

  3. The venom apparatus of a stinging organism.

Slang definitions & phrases for sting

sting

noun

A tricking or entrapment, either in a confidence scheme or as part of a law-enforcement operation: have used sting to describe undercover operations that use a bogus business operation as a front/ Let's contrast Abscam with traditional law-enforcement stings (1975+)

verb
  1. To cheat; swindle; defraud; scam (1812+)
  2. To overcharge; stick: He got stung at the corner market (1927+)

sting in Technology


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)

Idioms and Phrases with sting

sting

see: take the sting out of