stabbing

Pluralstabbings

1. 1
   nouncountable

   An incident in which someone is wounded or killed with a knife or other sharp weapon.

   The stabbing left the victim in critical condition for several days.

   Witnesses described the stabbing as sudden and entirely unprovoked.

   Similarknifing

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of stab.

   The fencer was stabbing forward in quick, precise motions.

   Stabbing the shovel into the frozen ground, he barely made a dent.

   Note

   The same spelling does three jobs. As the verb form it follows be (was stabbing forward) or takes an object. It carries every use of stab, from wounding with a knife to jabbing at something with a finger to roughening a brick wall to hold plaster. Placed before a noun it becomes the adjective of pain. With a plural ending it is the violent incident: two stabbings.

3. 3
   adjective

   Sharp and intense, as a sudden piercing pain that feels like the thrust of a pointed object.

   Like the sudden thrust of a knife point.

   A stabbing pain in her chest made her stop and catch her breath.

   He woke to a stabbing sensation behind his left eye.

   Similarsharp, piercing, shooting, acute, searing

   Oppositedull, mild

   Note

   Pain is nearly the only thing this adjective describes: a stabbing pain, or a stabbing sensation in the chest or behind the eye. It names a kind of pain rather than a degree of it, so it is not graded. A pain is stabbing or it is not, and "more stabbing" sounds wrong. To make it stronger, add another adjective instead: a sudden, stabbing pain.

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