# sting
## English
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /stɪŋ/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɪŋ

### Etymology 1

From Middle English stynge, sting, stenge, from Old English sting, stinċġ (“a sting, stab, thrust made with a pointed instrument; the wound made by a stab or sting”), from Proto-Germanic *stangiz.

#### Noun

sting (plural stings)
* A bump left on the skin after having been stung.
    Look at this nasty hornet sting: it's turned blue!
* A puncture made by an insect or arachnid in an attack, usually including the injection of venom.
    She died from a bee sting.
* A pointed portion of an insect or arachnid used for attack.
    Synonym: stinger
* A sharp, localized pain primarily on the epidermis.
    That plant will give a little sting if you touch it.
* (botany) A sharp-pointed hollow hair seated on a gland which secretes an acrid fluid, as in nettles.
* The thrust of a sting into the flesh; the act of stinging; a wound inflicted by stinging.
** c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:the lurking serpent's mortal sting
* (law enforcement) A police operation in which the police pretend to engage in criminal activity in order to catch a criminal.
    The criminal gang was caught after a successful sting.
** 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Citadel:Shepard: I'm taking you in, Jax. Turian Bodyguard: It's a sting. Bastard set us up. Jax: What the hell are you playing at?
* A short percussive phrase played by a drummer to accent the punchline in a comedy show.
* A brief sequence of music used in films, TV, and video games as a form of scenic punctuation or to identify the broadcasting station.
* A support for a wind tunnel model which extends parallel to the air flow.
** 2001, T. J. Mueller, Fixed and Flapping Wing Aerodynamics for Micro Air Vehicle Applications, page 118:The balance is mounted externally on top of the wind tunnel test section. A sting connects the balance to the model.
* (figurative) The harmful or painful part of something.
** 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Corinthians 15:56, column 1:The ſting of death is ſinne, […]
** 2011 January 19, Jonathan Stevenson, “Leeds 1 - 3 Arsenal”, in BBC‎:Just as it appeared Arsenal had taken the sting out of the tie, Johnson produced a moment of outrageous quality, thundering a bullet of a left foot shot out of the blue and into the top left-hand corner of Wojciech Szczesny's net with the Pole grasping at thin air.
* A goad; incitement.
** 1609, William Shakespeare, “A Louers Complaint”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:O most potential love! vow, bond, nor space, / In thee hath neither sting, knot, nor confine
* The concluding point of an epigram or other sarcastic saying.

##### Synonyms

* (pointed portion of an insect or arachnid): stinger

##### Derived terms

* bee sting
* countersting
* European sting winkle
* ring sting
* sting in the tail
* stingless

##### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Etymology 2

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

#### Verb

sting (third-person singular simple present stings, present participle stinging, simple past stung or (rare, dialectal) stang, past participle stung)
* (ambitransitive) To hurt, usually by introducing poison or a sharp point, or both.
* (transitive, of an insect or arachnid) To puncture with the stinger.
    A mosquito stung me on the arm.
* (intransitive, sometimes figurative) To hurt, to be in pain (physically or emotionally).
    My hand stings after knocking on the door so long.
    Still, it stung when a slightly older acquaintance asked me why I couldn't do any better.
** 2011 January 11, Jonathan Stevenson, “West Ham 2 - 1 Birmingham”, in BBC‎:But Birmingham were clearly stung by some harsh words from manager Alex McLeish at the break and within 15 minutes of the restart the game had an entirely different complexion.
** 2021 December 11, Julian Young, “Halo Infinite players will soon be able to replay campaign missions”, in Dexerto‎:While the absence of replayable story missions certainly stings for many fans, Halo Infinite’s campaign still has plenty to offer.
* (figurative) To cause harm or pain to.
    I thought I could park in front of the hotel, but they stung me for five pounds!

##### Derived terms

* stinging nettle
* sting like a bee
* stingproof
* stingy

##### Translations

Afrikaans: steek
Albanian: pickoj (sq) , n'ze (sq)(gheg)
Arabic: لَسَعَ (lasaʕa)
Egyptian Arabic: قرص (ʔaraṣ)
Moroccan Arabic: قرص (qraṣ), عض (ʕaḍḍ)
Armenian: կծել (hy) (kcel), խայթել (hy) (xaytʻel)
Bashkir: сағыу (sağıw)
Belarusian: джа́ліць impf (džálicʹ), куса́ць impf (kusácʹ), джгаць impf (džhacʹ)
Brunei Malay: sangat
Bulgarian: жиля (bg) impf (žilja)
Catalan: picar (ca), fiblar (ca)
Cebuano: gipaak, napaak
Chinese:
Mandarin: 蜇 (zh) (zhē), 叮 (zh) (dīng), 螫 (zh) (shì), 刺 (zh) (cì), 刺痛 (zh) (cìtòng)
Czech: bodnout (cs) pf, píchnout (cs) pf
Egyptian: (pzḥ)
Finnish: pistää (fi), purra (fi)
French: piquer (fr)
Friulian: sponzi, spongi
Galician: picar (gl), aferretar
Georgian: please add this translation if you can
German: stechen (de)
Greek: κεντρίζω (el) (kentrízo), τσιμπάω (el) (tsimpáo)
Ancient: κεντέω (kentéō)
Hungarian: szúr (hu), csíp (hu)
Ingrian: pistää
Irish: cealg
Italian: pungere (it)
Japanese: 食う (ja) (くう, kuu), 刺す (ja) (さす, sasu)
Korean: 물다 (ko) (mulda), 찌르다 (ko) (jjireuda), 쏘다 (ko) (ssoda)
Kurdish:
Central Kurdish: پێوەدان (ckb) (pêwedan)
Ladin: sponjer, sponje
Latin: īcō
Latvian: dzelt (lv)
Lithuanian: gelti (lt)
Macedonian: боцнува impf (bocnuva), боцне pf (bocne)
Malay: sengat
Malayalam: കുത്തുക (ml) (kuttuka)
Maori: kakati, wero
Norwegian: stikke (no)
Occitan: picar (oc)
Oromo: hidduu
Ottoman Turkish: صوقمق (sokmak)
Persian: گزیدن (fa) (gazidan)
Polish: żądlić (pl) impf, użądlić (pl) pf, kąsać (pl) impf, ukąsić (pl) pf
Portuguese: picar (pt), morder (pt)
Quechua: kaniy (qu)
Romanian: înțepa (ro), pișca (ro)
Russian: жа́лить (ru) impf (žálitʹ), ужа́лить (ru) pf (užálitʹ); куса́ть (ru) impf (kusátʹ), укуси́ть (ru) pf (ukusítʹ)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: уба́дати impf, у̀бости pf
Roman: ubádati (sh) impf, ùbosti (sh) pf
Simalungun Batak: sorod
Slovak: bodnúť pf, pichnúť pf
Slovene: pičiti (sl) impf
Spanish: picar (es), aguijonear (es), aguijar (es)
Swedish: stinga (sv), sticka (sv)
Tagalog: kinagat
Telugu: కుట్టు (te) (kuṭṭu)
Thai: กัด (th) (gàt), ต่อย (th) (dtɔ̀i)
Turkish: sokmak (tr)
Ukrainian: жа́лити impf (žályty), ужа́лити pf (užályty), куса́ти (uk) impf (kusáty), укуси́ти pf (ukusýty), жига́ти impf (žyháty), джигну́ти pf (džyhnúty)
Venetan: sponzer, spunciar, ponzer, ponxer, ponzar, ponxar
Vietnamese: đốt (vi), chích (vi)
Volapük: stegülön (vo)
Walloon: hagnî (wa), piker (wa) :
    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Anagrams

* GTINs, Tings, gnits, tings

## Middle English
### Etymology 1
#### Noun

sting
* Alternative form of styng

### Etymology 2
#### Verb

sting
* (Northern) Alternative form of styngen

## Norwegian Bokmål
### Etymology

From the verb stinge.

### Noun

sting n (definite singular stinget, indefinite plural sting, definite plural stinga or stingene)
* a stitch (in sewing and surgery)
* stitch (pain in the side)
    Synonyms: hold, leverhogg

### References

* “sting” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

## Norwegian Nynorsk
### Etymology

From the verb stinga, from Old Norse stinga, from Proto-Germanic *stinganą.
(pain): May be a calque of English stitch

### Noun

sting m (definite singular stingen, indefinite plural stingar or stinger, definite plural stingane or stingene)
* stitch (pain in the side)
    Synonyms: hald, leverhogg

### Noun

sting n (definite singular stinget, indefinite plural sting, definite plural stinga)
* a stitch (in sewing and surgery)

### References

* “sting” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

## Old English
### Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *stingaz; akin to stingan.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /stinɡ/, [stiŋɡ]

### Noun

sting m
* sting, stinging (of an animal)

#### Descendants

* Middle English: styng, stenge, sting, stynge, steng (Kent), stunchg (West Midlands)
** English: sting
** Scots: sting

## Romanian
### Verb

sting
* inflection of stinge:
** first-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
** third-person plural present indicative

## Swedish
### Pronunciation

* Audio:(file)

### Verb

sting
* imperative of stinga

### Anagrams

* tings