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Sting   /stɪŋ/   Listen
noun
Sting  n.  
1.
(Zool.) Any sharp organ of offense and defense, especially when connected with a poison gland, and adapted to inflict a wound by piercing; as the caudal sting of a scorpion. The sting of a bee or wasp is a modified ovipositor. The caudal sting, or spine, of a sting ray is a modified dorsal fin ray. The term is sometimes applied to the fang of a serpent.
2.
(Bot.) A sharp-pointed hollow hair seated on a gland which secrets an acrid fluid, as in nettles. The points of these hairs usually break off in the wound, and the acrid fluid is pressed into it.
3.
Anything that gives acute pain, bodily or mental; as, the stings of remorse; the stings of reproach. "The sting of death is sin."
4.
The thrust of a sting into the flesh; the act of stinging; a wound inflicted by stinging. "The lurking serpent's mortal sting."
5.
A goad; incitement.
6.
The point of an epigram or other sarcastic saying.
Sting moth (Zool.), an Australian moth (Doratifera vulnerans) whose larva is armed, at each end of the body, with four tubercles bearing powerful stinging organs.
Sting ray. (Zool.) See under 6th Ray.
Sting winkle (Zool.), a spinose marine univalve shell of the genus Murex, as the European species (Murex erinaceus).


verb
Sting  v. t.  (past stang; past part. stung; pres. part. stinging)  
1.
To pierce or wound with a sting; as, bees will sting an animal that irritates them; the nettles stung his hands.
2.
To pain acutely; as, the conscience is stung with remorse; to bite. "Slander stings the brave."
3.
To goad; to incite, as by taunts or reproaches.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Sting" Quotes from Famous Books



... the sting of the prelate's delicate sarcasm. At bottom, beneath this make-believe Florentine all-angelicalness, with long curly hair and mauve eyes which grew dim with rapture at sight of a Botticelli, there was a thoroughly practical, business-like young man, who took admirable care of his fortune ...
— The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete - Lourdes, Rome and Paris • Emile Zola
... startled as if by a sting. He saw that some one had betrayed his plan to the officers. Even fur traders were standing under arms. To this day it is not known who secretly warned the fort of Pontiac's conspiracy; but the most ...
— Heroes of the Middle West - The French • Mary Hartwell Catherwood
... Eschenhagen, who had recovered her breath by this time, felt the sting of these last words. It had not entered her thoughts that one betrothal had been broken in order that another might be arranged, but now the fearful ...
— The Northern Light • E. Werner
... Brian was fifteen years old; and the last words upon his tongue were an entreaty that his wife would never tell the boy of the suspicion that had turned her love to him into bitterness. He died, and part of the sting of his death to Mrs. Luttrell lay in the fact that he died thinking her mad on that one point. The doctors had called her conviction "a case of mania," and he had implicitly ...
— Under False Pretences - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant
... man under endless disabilities, and then bids him to escape from the nexus if he can; but it reveals no divine helper, no sacrifice, no mediator, no regenerating Spirit. It has no glad tidings to proclaim, no comfort in sorrow, no victory over the sting of death, no resurrection unto Life. Though at a period subsequent to the preaching of the Gospel in India—perhaps the seventh or eighth century A.D.—a doctrine of faith (Bakti) was engrafted upon Hinduism, yet it had no hint of a Saviour ...
— Oriental Religions and Christianity • Frank F. Ellinwood


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