stab

STAB/stæb/

Noun pluralstabs

18 meanings of stab

1
verbtransitive
To drive a weapon or tool, usually a pointed one and most often a knife or dagger, into someone so as to pierce or wound them.
The victim said a stranger stabbed him outside the bar.
Guards train to disarm anyone who tries to stab a prisoner.
Similarjab, shiv
Note
Here the person wounded is the object. You stab someone, stab him in the heart, and the outcome is often spelled out: stabbed to death. Compare the thrusting sense, where the weapon takes the object slot instead, as in to stab a dagger into a person. Jab overlaps with it, though a jab need not pierce, and shiv is the blunter, slangier synonym.
2
nouncountable
A single thrusting motion made with a pointed object.
With one quick stab, she popped the bubble wrap.
The fencer scored with a sharp stab to the chest.
Similarjab, thrust, poke, lunge, prod
Note
The noun came south from Scotland. Scots stob or stabb meant both a pointed stick and a thrust with a pointed weapon. Behind it is Middle English stabbe, probably a variant of stob or stub ('stake, stump'), from Old Norse stobbi. So a stab and a stub are cousins, and the thrust took its name from the stake that delivered it. With a knife in hand, take a stab at someone is meant quite literally.
3
nouncountable
A wound produced by piercing with a pointed weapon or tool.
The coroner counted three stabs to the chest.
A single stab had punctured the lung.
4
nouncolloquialcountable
An attempt at doing or solving something.
She made a stab at the trivia question but got it wrong.
His first stab at baking bread turned out surprisingly well.
Similarattempt, try, shot, go (entry), crack
Note
The informal attempt lives in a few set verb phrases: make a stab at, have a good stab at, give a task a stab. Take a stab at needs care. With a knife in hand it is a literal thrust, and aimed at a person rather than a task it can mean a dig at them. Adding good keeps the claim modest: a fair try, not a promised result.
5
verbtransitive
To thrust something forward in a sharp, stabbing motion.
She stabbed her pen at the chart to mark the error.
Coaches often stab a finger toward the field when correcting players.
Similarjab, thrust, poke, prod, point
6
verbintransitive
To hit out recklessly with the tip of a pointed object, such as a weapon or finger, without careful aim.
He stabbed at the dartboard wildly, missing every time.
Frustrated commuters stab at the broken touchscreen until it responds.
Similarjab, poke, prod, lunge, swipe
Note
Add at and the blow becomes a try rather than a hit: he stabbed at my face with the twig but kept missing. The target is aimed at, not necessarily reached. That is why the construction suits frenzy and defiance, as in Ahab's 'from hell's heart I stab at thee' in Melville's Moby-Dick (1851). Dryden uses the bare verb instead, for fighting at close quarters with a shortened sword.
7
verbintransitive
To cause a sudden, sharp, piercing sensation of pain.
A migraine stabbed behind her left eye all afternoon.
Hunger pangs stab at him whenever he skips breakfast.
Similarpierce, throb, gnaw, shoot
8
nouncountable
A sharp, sudden pain inflicted on a person's feelings.
A stab of regret kept her awake that night.
He felt a sudden stab of fear while reading the letter.
Similarpang, twinge, prick, jolt, flash
9
verbfigurativelytransitive
To injure someone secretly through malicious lies or slander.
Colleagues who stab you with whispered rumors are the hardest to confront.
He stabbed his business partner with a quiet campaign of slander.
Similardefame, discredit, disparage, denigrate, belittle
Oppositepraise, defend
Note
A figurative wound, and its object is often not the person but what they are known by: to stab a person's reputation. Besmirch and denigrate cover similar ground, but they describe soiling or belittling. Stab keeps the picture of a single hidden blow, which is why it suits slander passed quietly rather than criticism made in the open.
10
nouncountable
Pointed, wounding criticism aimed at a person or their work.
The reviewer's stab at the novel struck many readers as needlessly cruel.
He brushed off the political stabs aimed at his record.
Similardig, jab, swipe, barb, attack
Oppositecompliment

11
nouncountable
A single short, sharp chord that adds dramatic impact to a piece of music.
The composer dropped a brass stab right as the villain appeared.
Sudden orchestral stabs punctuated the chase scene.
Similarsting
Note
Musicians usually name a stab by what plays it: a horn stab, a brass stab, an orchestral stab. Its force comes from isolation. It is one short, detached chord that hits and stops, a punctuation mark in the arrangement rather than a step in the harmony. The image is borrowed from the knife's single thrust: sudden, sharp and over at once.
12
verbtransitive
To pierce folded sheets near their back edges so thread or wire can pass through to bind them.
Workers stab the folded sheets along the spine before threading the wire.
She stabbed the gathered leaves close to the back edge.
Similarpierce, punch, perforate
13
verbtransitive
To roughen a brick wall with a pick so that plaster will hold to its surface.
Masons stab the brickwork to give the plaster something to grip.
He stabbed the wall thoroughly before the first coat went on.
Similarroughen, hack, key
Oppositesmooth
14
verbtransitive
In drilling and pipework, to steer the end of a length of pipe into a coupling while the two are being joined.
The floor hands stab the pipe into the box and start the threads by hand.
He stabbed the joint carefully to avoid damaging the threads.
Similarinsert, guide
Note
On a drilling rig this is crew jargon, and it keeps the word's old picture of a pointed thrust: the end of the pipe goes into its coupling the way a blade goes home. Paul Carter's Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs (2005) counts it among the derrickman's jobs. The aim is to seat the threaded end squarely, so the connection can be made up without cross-threading.
15
nouncountable
A bacterial culture grown by pushing a needle or wire carrying bacteria into a solid medium such as gelatin.
The technician inoculated a stab to test how the organism grew below the surface.
Several stabs were stored as backups of the original strain.
16
nounslangcountable
A plane's horizontal or vertical stabilizer: the fixed tail surface that holds it steady.
The crew chief found a loose bolt on the stab during the walkaround.
Pilots reported heavy buffeting from the damaged stab.
Similarstabilizer, tailplane
Note
A separate word from the knife, cut down from stabilizer. It turns up even in cockpit labeling. Chris Brady's Boeing 737 Technical Site (2020) describes the STAB TRIM CUTOUT switches that pilots throw to disable the 737 MAX's MCAS system. As slang it belongs to crews and hangars; in formal writing, spell out stabilizer.
17
adjectiveabbreviationclipping
Clipping of established. Chiefly British trade slang, especially among printers, for regular salaried work.
Do you know whether any country offices pay their men by the thousand, or whether they are on stab wages? — I do not know. Some are paid stab wages, but I do not know whether there is much piece-work.
1893, Proceedings of the Parliament of South Australia
Note
A third word spelled the same way, cut down from established and at home in printing and labor talk. Stab wages are a fixed, regular wage, set against piece-work. The Proceedings of the Parliament of South Australia (1893) contrast the two directly. John Child's Industrial Relations in the British Printing Industry (1967) records pressmen granted a stab wage of 36s for a 60-hour week. It works before a noun and has no comparative.
18
nounabbreviationclipping
Clipping of establishment. Old British trade slang, chiefly printers', for regular weekly employment (on stab).
Note
The noun survives mainly in a fixed phrase: to be paid on the stab, meaning on the regular establishment wage rather than by the piece. The British Printer of 1892 counts compositors paid on the stab. The word takes no plural. It shares its origin and its trade with the adjective in stab wages.

Practice

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Origins

Meanings 1–15

First recorded in Scottish English (compare Scots stob 'a pointed stick or a thrust with a weapon'), from Middle English stabbe 'a stab', probably a variant of Middle English stob or stub 'pointed stick, stake, stump', from Old Norse stobbi. Some suppose it comes from Scottish Gaelic stob 'to prick, prod, thrust', while others think it is from a Scots word.

Meaning 16

A clipping of stabilizer (or stabiliser).