stab

Meanings

Noun

• An act of stabbing or thrusting with an object.
• A wound made by stabbing.
• Pain inflicted on a person's feelings.
• An attempt.
• Criticism.
• A single staccato chord that adds dramatic impact to a composition.
• A bacterial culture made by inoculating a solid medium, such as gelatin, with the puncture of a needle or wire.
• The horizontal or vertical stabilizer of an aircraft.
• Short form of establishment

Verb

• To pierce or to wound (somebody) with a pointed tool or weapon, especially a knife or dagger.
• To thrust in a stabbing motion.
• To recklessly hit with the tip of a pointed object, such as a weapon or finger .
• To cause a sharp, painful sensation .
• To injure secretly or by malicious falsehood or slander.
• To roughen a brick wall with a pick so as to hold plaster.
• To pierce folded sheets, near their back edges, for the passage of thread or wire.

Adjective

• Short form of established

Origin

• First attested in Scottish English (compare Scots stob, stobbe, stabb), from Middle English stabbe ("a stab"), probably a variant of Middle English stob, stub, stubbe, 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.
• or stabiliser.