stab

Meaning

Noun

1. An act of stabbing or thrusting with an object.
2. A wound made by stabbing.
3. Pain inflicted on a person's feelings.
4. (informal) An attempt.
5. Criticism.
6. A single staccato chord that adds dramatic impact to a composition.
7. A bacterial culture made by inoculating a solid medium, such as gelatin, with the puncture of a needle or wire.

Verb

1. (transitive) To pierce or to wound (somebody) with a (usually pointed) tool or weapon, especially a knife or dagger.
2. (transitive) To thrust in a stabbing motion.
3. (intransitive) To recklessly hit with the tip of a (usually pointed) object, such as a weapon or finger (often used with at).
4. (intransitive) To cause a sharp, painful sensation (often used with at).
5. (figuratively, transitive) To injure secretly or by malicious falsehood or slander.
6. (transitive) To roughen a brick wall with a pick so as to hold plaster.
7. (transitive) To pierce folded sheets, near their back edges, for the passage of thread or wire.
8. (transitive) To guide the end of a pipe into a coupling when making up a connection.

Adj

Clipping of established.

Synonyms

pierce

prick

thrust

sting

jab

spear

knife

🔪

poke

puncture

cut

prod

wound

stick

penetrate

hurt

stick in

bite

twinge

stabbing

lunge

stitch

bruise

thorn

skewer

perforate

strike

bore

laceration

lesion

injury

stab wound

gore

kill

🔪🩸👤

damage

thrust into

push

shot

sink in

probe

puncture wound

pass

enter

pang

permeate

pervade

drive in

impale

dig

gash

slash

Translations

poignarder

apuñalar

stechen

steken

erstechen

accoltellare

acuchillar

🔪

apunhalar

pugnalare

apunyalar

esfaquear

coltellata

priemen

piquer

pinchar

Pronounced as (IPA)

/stæb/

Etymology

Cognate with Scots: stob

Cognate with Old English: stybb

Cognate with Middle Dutch: stobbe

In summary

First attested in Scottish English (compare Scots stob, stobbe, stabb (“a pointed stick or stake; a thrust with a pointed weapon”)), from Middle English stabbe (“a stab”), probably a variant of Middle English stob, stub, stubbe (“pointed stick, stake, thorn, stub, stump”), from Old Norse stobbi, stubbi, cognate with Old English stybb. Cognate with Middle Dutch stobbe.
Supposed by some to derive from Scottish Gaelic stob (“to prick, to prod, to push, to thrust”); supposed by others to be from a Scots word.