stabby
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈstæbi/
rhymes: -æbi
Forms: form: stabbier
form: stabbiest
Etymology: From stab + -y.
Senses: examples: text: At any rate there flourished by the curbing, sure enough, a wide and very stabby cactus garden, extending Tartar hospitality.
ref: 1935, The American Legion Monthly, volume 19, page 54:
text: The crowd hates the picadors who deprive the bull of its first energy to fight. The picador is fat. He's got a long pole with a stabby thing on the end. His horse is blinded in cloth. His horse is old on its last legs.
ref: 1971, Jill Johnston, Marmalade Me, Dutton, published 1971, page 298:
text: Roxy was knitting tiny finger-puppet monsters. The Gem was peppered with balls of wool and potentially stabby knitting needles.
ref: 2010, Zoe Whittall, Holding Still for as Long as Possible, House of Anansi Press Inc, →ISBN, page 108:
glosses: having one or more sharp points
examples: text: By means of a clever arrangement of springs down below that responded to an electric current, the whole mechanism was able to move up and down and backward and forward in short stabby jerks that were supposed to stir up your gizzard in practically the same way as the motion of a horse.
ref: 1921, Francis Hackett, The Invisible Censor, B. W. Huebsch, Inc:
text: Because they would be coming any minute now, any second, actually, and the only warning he would get would be the sound of the opening of the outside door and then two pairs of footsteps in the hall, the one sharp and stabby and the other flat, flat as the palm of your hand […]
ref: 1968, Seymour Krim, Views of a Nearsighted Cannoneer, Dutton, published 1968, page 44:
text: Neither possesses a serve fast enough to dent a radar gun and their stabby backhands resemble karate chops.
ref: 1991 September 18, “Walker, Holton Are A Winning Duo”, in South Florida Sun-Sentinel:
glosses: quick and thrusting
raw_tags: of movement
examples: text: She saw a young couple go past, embarrassed and blushing under showers of rice and riotously convoyed by what clearly was an East Side bridal party. This she saw with a quick darting pang — not a pang of envy exactly, nor yet of jealousy; just a sharp, stabby, little sort of pang, that's all.
ref: 1933, Irvin S. Cobb, One Way Stop to a Panic, R. M. McBride & Company, published 1933, page 250:
text: I began to develop stabby feelings of guilt. I couldn't speak enough Spanish to compete with the extension people in the office, and I spent most of my time reading old Time magazines. I would think about that eleven cents an hour that I was getting and feel like a real thief.
ref: 1971, Moritz Thomsen, Living Poor: A Peace Corps Chronicle, University of Washington Press, published 1969, page 26:
text: "I feel bad for her!" said Kit, earnestly. Winced and shifted some more—stabby nerve-ending pain out of nowhere, per usual. Pressure in the temples. He could deal but hoped his eye didn't start to twitch; hated that.
ref: 2003, Bruce Wagner, Still Holding, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 265:
glosses: sudden and acute
raw_tags: of a feeling
examples: text: The guitar player is playing kind of melodic licks, and the horns are stabby, accent parts.
ref: 1999 August 20, “Mandorico turns from ska to Latin rock”, in Sarasota Herald-Tribune:
text: Fuck yeah, Zelda kicks ass! Ratatat re-up with their second set of '80s video game-worthy instrumentals, full of stabby guitars and disco-y synths.
ref: 2006, Kory Grow, review of Ratatat's album Classics, CMJ New Music Monthly, August 2006
text: Going solo in 1970, Mayfield's eponymous debut LP featured 'Move On Up', a hit single whose stabby violins and clattering percussion helped to define the palate of funky, seventies soul […]
ref: 2009, Travis Elborough, The Vinyl Countdown: The Album from LP to iPod and Back Again, Counterpoint Press, →ISBN, page 279:
glosses: staccato
raw_tags: of sound
examples: text: Her eyes are the stabby kind, worse than long hatpins. Honest, after one glance I felt like I was bein' held up on a fork.
ref: 1917, Sewell Ford, chapter VIII, in Wilt Thou Torchy, Grosset & Dunlap:
text: Then I catches the eye of the stiff-necked dame with the straight nose and the gun-metal hair. No, both eyes, it was; and a cold, suspicious, stabby look is what they shoots my way.
ref: 1918, Sewell Ford, chapter VII, in The House of Torchy, Grosset & Dunlap, page 98:
text: Toby glittered the tears into hard, stabby looks at his father and Ma.
ref: 1974, Pamela Rogers, The Rare One, T. Nelson, published 1974, page 54:
glosses: penetrating and hostile
raw_tags: of a look or eyes
glosses: acting in a violent and/or deranged manner
examples: text: If I show the evidence of expanding, she looks at me like she will pop me with her Alfred Hitchcock knife. Is all of this just my expanded imagination? OR WILL YOU FINALLY BELIEVE THE WARNING I AM SAYING ABOUT THE MOTHER. THAT SHE IS GETTING FREAKY IN A STABBY WAY.
ref: 1997, Lynda Barry, Cruddy: An Illustrated Novel, Simon & Schuster, published 1999, →ISBN, page 21:
text: I don’t get mad, I get stabby.
ref: 1999 December 19, “Grift of the Magi”, in The Simpsons, season 11, episode 9, spoken by Fat Tony (Joe Mantegna):
text: I love it, as it allows me to sprint after an opponent, then stab them in the back when I get close. I gotta say, there are few things more satisfying in this game than cutting a foes throat or burying your blade in their chest. I don't get mad, I get stabby!
ref: 2007 August 23, Will Tuttle, “Call of Duty 4 Multiplayer Beta: Editor Impressions”, in Team XBox:
text: Forgetful Hiro can remember everything up to being ten, but nothing since then, including stabbing Sylar at the end of Volume 1. But, of course, "Stabby Hiro" can remember being ten as well. So Forgetful Hiro can remember Ten-Year-Old Hiro, and so can Stabby Hiro, but Forgetful Hiro can't remember Stabby Hiro.
ref: 2009, David Kyle Johnson, Heroes and Philosophy: Buy the Book, Save the World, John Wiley and Sons, →ISBN, page 191:
text: If someone gives you shit, keep your mouth shut, and come grab me if they start to look all stabby with a knife.
ref: 2020, Rhys Ford, Silk Dragon Salsa, DSP Publications, →ISBN, page 91:
glosses: prone to commit an act of stabbing
examples: text: This fool is starting to make me feel stabby. Coming back to one of his threads is like a scab you want to pick but you just know it will get infected, yet you feel oddly compelled to see just how much of a fool he has made of himself.
ref: 2001 March 18, "GROGtheNailer", “Re: HH2002: ReAd ThIs 3dO !!!”, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.sports (Usenet):
text: Some of the tasks can be a little difficult, and thus enjoyable, but all in all they left me feeling depressed and stabby (when you feel like stabbing someone).
ref: 2003, "NemeLynx", Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc review, XBoxAddict.com, 18 March 2003
text: (And now that I’ve done this, you’ll suddenly begin noticing – if you haven’t already – my evil molesting of grammar and inappropriate use of punctuation, and feel totally stabby whenever I make a really obvious mistake. But I’m not a real journalist! I’m just a small town girl, living in a lonely world!)
ref: 2008 November 20, Jess McGuire, “Nice Work, The Age!”, in Defamer Australia:
text: Letters and punctuation are nothing but code for our thoughts and ideas. Why then do I feel all stabby when I get a message that ends with three short marks: a colon, a hyphen and a parenthesis?
ref: 2009 November 30, Mary Elizabeth Williams, “Death to Smiley”, in Salon:
text: The alarm clock stung a bit more today. The lineup at the coffee drivethru was longer. You felt a little bit more stabby in the gridlocked traffic.
ref: 2010 January 9, Yukon Jack, “Back to the Daily Grind”, in Edmonton Sun:
text: Publishers, if you're not introducing significant new gameplay features, you shouldn't pretend to be releasing a brand-new game. It makes gamers stabby.
ref: 2010 January 29, Joe Rybicki, “Music games need to refocus, not reboot”, in Computer World:
text: In the 2007 article, "From the 'Things that make us stabby' files," Bitch editor/creative director Andi Zeisler briefly describes a Howard University student's thwarted attempts at getting a rape kit after visiting two different hospitals (Howard University and George Washington) and getting the D.C. police involved.
ref: 2010 April 12, Kelsey Wallace, “Rape: Still not an 'official crime,' still making us stabby”, in Bitch Magazine:
text: "The Pope Speaks Out Against Atheism", reported a couple of stabby blog links.
Shock horror! Next thing you'll be telling me that the Pope believes in God. Disgusting behaviour for a religious leader/world leader person (except when the Dalai Llama says it because he's cute like Yoda).
ref: 2010 September 20, CJ Lambert, “The Pope, Pedobear and Twitter”, in 3 News:
glosses: angry or irritated
Derived terms: backstabby
stabbily
stabbiness