Link Centre Dictionary

sting

UK/ˈstɪŋ/ US/ˈstɪŋɡ/ fairly common
verb (5) noun (4)

verb

1.

cause a sharp or stinging pain or discomfort

  • “The sun burned his face”
Synonyms
2.

deliver a sting to

  • “A bee stung my arm yesterday”
Synonyms
3.

saddle with something disagreeable or disadvantageous

  • “They stuck me with the dinner bill”
  • “I was stung with a huge tax bill”
Synonyms
4.

cause a stinging pain

  • “The needle pricked his skin”
Synonyms
5.

cause an emotional pain, as if by stinging

  • “His remark stung her”

noun

1.

a kind of pain; something as sudden and painful as being stung

  • “the sting of death”
  • “he felt the stinging of nettles”
Synonyms
2.

a mental pain or distress

  • “a pang of conscience”
Synonyms
3.

a painful wound caused by the thrust of an insect''s stinger into skin

Synonyms
4.

Origin

From Middle English styng, sting, stynge, stenge, from Old English sting, stincg (“a sting, stab, thrust made with a pointed instrument; the wound made by a stab or sting”), from Proto-Germanic *stingaz; possibly also from Old English stynġ, from Proto-Germanic *stungiz.

Phrases

  • bee sting
  • European sting winkle
  • ring sting
  • sting in the tail
  • sting like a bee
  • stinging nettle

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

Related verbs

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.