sting

STING/stɪŋ/

Noun pluralstings

17 meanings of sting

1
verbtransitive or intransitive
To cause pain by piercing the skin, usually with a sharp point, poison, or both.
Wasps will sting if you disturb their nest.
The nettles stung her bare legs as she walked through the field.
Similarprick, bite, pierce
Note
The verb comes from Old English stingan, with relatives in Swedish and Icelandic stinga. It is irregular: stung serves as both past tense and past participle (the nettles stung her; she had been stung), while stang survives only as a rare dialect past. It works with or without an object (wasps sting, and wasps sting people) and covers poison and sharp points alike.
2
nouncountable
A sharp, localized pain felt mainly on the surface of the skin.
She felt a sudden sting where the branch had scratched her.
The antiseptic left a brief sting on the open cut.
Similarsmart, prick, twinge, prickle, burn
3
nouncountable
A puncture wound made by an insect or arachnid in an attack, usually injecting venom.
The sting was no deeper than a pinprick, yet the venom soon made it throb.
Doctors treated the scorpion sting before the venom could spread.
Similarpuncture, prick
4
verbfigurativelyintransitive
To feel pain, whether in the body or in one's feelings.
Cuts like that sting for hours.
The criticism stung more than she expected.
Similarsmart
Note
Here the hurt belongs to the subject: eyes sting from chopped onions, a hand stings after long knocking, and a remark can sting when it lands. No object follows, which separates it from the causing sense; a team stung by harsh words is the passive of that other verb. Smart is the close synonym, and like smart it suits both the body and wounded feelings.
5
nouncountable
The sharp, pointed part of an insect or arachnid used to attack.
The bee left its sting embedded in the wound.
A scorpion arches its tail to bring the sting forward.
Similarstinger
6
verbtransitive
To pierce someone or something with a stinger.
A frightened wasp will sting anyone who comes too close.
The scorpion stung him twice before he could move away.
7
nouncountable
A police operation in which officers pretend to take part in crime in order to catch a criminal.
Undercover officers ran a sting to trap the smugglers.
The drug dealer was caught in a sting late last night.
Similarsetup, trap, bust, operation, snare
Note
A law-enforcement term that has become everyday news vocabulary: officers pose as willing partners in a crime and wait for the suspect to commit it. Police run a sting, criminals are caught in a sting, and a successful sting ends in arrests. A suspect who sees the trap may say flatly, "It's a sting," as a character does in BioWare's Mass Effect (2007), adding that someone "set us up."
8
nouncountable
The driving of a stinger into flesh, the act of stinging, or the wound that stinging leaves.
The sting of the scorpion drove venom deep into the muscle.
Each sting of the wasp left a painful puncture along his arm.
Similarjab, prick, stab
Note
Here the word stays closest to its Old English ancestor, sting or stincg, which meant a stab or thrust with a pointed instrument and also the wound it left. That double meaning survives: the noun can name the stroke itself or its result. Shakespeare's "the lurking serpent's mortal sting," in The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, shows the older, grander use, where a serpent stings as readily as a wasp.
9
verbfigurativelytransitive
To cause harm or pain to someone.
Defeats like that sting even the most experienced teams.
The harsh review stung the young author deeply.
Similarhurt, wound, pain, upset
Oppositesoothe, comfort
Note
Everyday speech stretches this into money: to be stung for a sum is to be charged more than seems fair, as with a guest stung for five pounds to park at a hotel. The pattern is sting someone for an amount, and it carries the speaker's annoyance. Elsewhere the sense keeps its emotional edge, as when a harsh review or a defeat stings.
10
nounfigurativelycountable
The element of something that wounds or causes pain or harm.
Time eventually took the sting out of her grief.
There was a quiet sting hidden in his polite refusal.
Similarpain, hurt, bite, edge, barb
Note
English usually meets this figure in two fixed shapes. One is the sting of something, made memorable by the King James Bible of 1611: "The sting of death is sin." The other is take the sting out of, meaning to blunt a threat or soften a blow. Jonathan Stevenson's 2011 BBC report has Arsenal seeming to take the sting out of a tie, just before an opponent struck back.

11
nouncountable
A raised bump left on the skin after being stung.
A pale sting marked the spot where the bee had jabbed him.
By morning the stings on her arm had turned itchy and pink.
Similarwelt, bump, weal, lump
12
nouncountable
A brief sequence of music used in films, TV, and video games to punctuate a scene or identify the broadcasting station.
A tense sting plays whenever the villain appears on screen.
The game rewards each victory with a triumphant sting.
Similarcue, jingle, ident
Note
Short music doing the work of punctuation: a few notes that mark a reveal, close a scene or announce a channel. Broadcasters also call it a sounder. It is a close cousin of the drummer's punchline accent, but that one is played live by a percussionist, while this kind is recorded music cued in film, television or games.
13
nouncountable
A brief percussive flourish a drummer plays to punctuate the punchline in a comedy act.
He timed the sting perfectly so it crashed in on the final word.
A well-placed sting can make a weak joke get a laugh.
Similarrimshot
14
nouncountable
A stiff, hollow, sharp-pointed hair growing from a gland that releases an irritant fluid, as on a nettle.
Brush against the plant and one sting is enough to leave your hand burning.
Under the microscope, each sting looks like a fine glassy spike.
Similarprickle, spine, bristle
Note
Botany borrows the animal's word for a plant's passive defense. Technically the structure is a trichome, a specialized plant hair, and nothing about it strikes. The touch does the work: the brittle tip breaks against skin and the fluid is injected through the opening. That is the useful contrast with the insect's weapon, an organ the animal drives home itself.
15
nouncountable
Something that goads or incites; a spur driving a person to action.
Wounded pride proved a stronger sting than any reward.
Her rival's success was the sting that pushed her back to work.
Similarspur, goad, prod, stimulus, incentive
Oppositedeterrent, disincentive
16
nouncountable
The concluding point that gives an epigram or other sarcastic saying its bite.
Every couplet she wrote built toward a single, well-aimed sting.
The compliment seemed sincere until the sting in the closing remark.
Similarbarb, punchline, kicker, zinger, twist
17
nouncountable
A mounting that holds a test model in a wind tunnel and extends in the same direction as the airflow.
The team adjusted the sting to set the model at a steeper angle of attack.
A slender sting kept the wing model aligned with the oncoming stream.
Note
An aerodynamicist's sting is a slender mount that runs parallel to the airflow rather than across it, holding the model steady in the test section. It also carries the link to the measuring equipment: T. J. Mueller (2001) describes a balance mounted above the test section, with a sting connecting the balance to the model. Adjusting the sting is how the model's angle to the stream is set.

Practice

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Origins

Meanings 2–3, 5, 7–8, 10–17

From Middle English sting, from Old English sting, meaning a stab or thrust made with a pointed instrument, or the wound it makes. It goes back to Proto-Germanic *stingaz, and possibly also to Old English stynġ from Proto-Germanic *stungiz.

Meanings 1, 4, 6, 9

From Middle English stingen, from Old English stingan, from Proto-Germanic *stinganą, related to Swedish and Icelandic stinga.