stab

• enPR: stăb, IPA^(key): /stæb/

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• Hyphenation: stab
• Rhymes: -æb

First attested in Scottish English (compare Scots stob, stobbe, stabb (“a pointed stick or stake; a thrust with a pointed weapon”)), from Middle English stabbe (“a stab”), probably a variant of Middle English stob, stub, stubbe (“pointed stick, stake, thorn, stub, stump”), 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.

stab (plural stabs)

1. An act of stabbing or thrusting with an object.
   • 1979, Karl May, The Secret Brotherhood: A Novel, Seabury Press, →ISBN, page 52:

     A knife was flashing in his hand, and just as he was about to take a stab at me, the smith grabbed his arm from behind.

2. A wound made by stabbing.
   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     I opened the man's linen robe, and there over his heart was a dagger-wound, and beneath the woman's fair breast was a like cruel stab, through which her life had ebbed away.

3. Pain inflicted on a person's feelings.
   • 2001, Van Whitfield, Guys in Suits: A Novel, Doubleday, →ISBN, page 73:

     “I bet you two have really big plans. And might I say, that is just fab,” he said of Lynn's dress. “I'm glad someone noticed,” she replied, seeming to take a stab at me.

4. (informal) An attempt.

   I'll give this thankless task a stab.

   • 2022 January 12, Sir Michael Holden, “Reform of the workforce or death by a thousand cuts?”, in RAIL, number 948, page 22:

     As yet, we don't know what the comparable figures will be like for the current financial year which ends in March 2022, but we can have a good stab at approximating them.

5. Criticism.
6. (music) A single staccato chord that adds dramatic impact to a composition.

   a horn stab

7. A bacterial culture made by inoculating a solid medium, such as gelatin, with the puncture of a needle or wire.

A man about to be stabbed.

stab (third-person singular simple present stabs, present participle stabbing, simple past and past participle stabbed)

1. (transitive) To pierce or to wound (somebody) with a (usually pointed) tool or weapon, especially a knife or dagger.

   If you stab him in the heart he won't live long enough to retaliate.

   • 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Tremarn Case”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:

     "There the cause of death was soon ascertained ; the victim of this daring outrage had been stabbed to death from ear to ear with a long, sharp instrument, in shape like an antique stiletto, which […] was subsequently found under the cushions of the hansom. […]"

   • 2021 February 3, Drachinifel, 12:32 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - Santa Cruz (IJN 2 : 2 USN)‎, archived from the original on 4 December 2022:

     Hornet blazed away as best she could, but, having to split her attention between high and low attackers, as well as having the aft 5-inch battery temporarily disabled by a young officer who'd accidentally run the guns into their stops, freezing them in position until the issue could be sorted, meant that two 550-pound semi-armor-piercing bombs, and one fractionally-lighter high-explosive bomb, soon crashed down, the first two stabbing deep into the ship and the other one blowing a hole in the flight deck, accompanied by a dive bomber that had been shot down but elected to go out by slamming into the Hornet as opposed to the sea. In some small comfort, that aircraft's bomb didn't go off as well.

2. (transitive) To thrust in a stabbing motion.

   to stab a dagger into a person

3. (intransitive) To recklessly hit with the tip of a (usually pointed) object, such as a weapon or finger (often used with at).

   He stabbed at my face with the twig but luckily kept missing my eyes.

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     None shall dare / With shortened sword to stab in closer war.

4. (intransitive) To cause a sharp, painful sensation (often used with at).

   The snow from the blizzard was stabbing at my face as I skied down the mountain.

5. (transitive, figurative) To injure secretly or by malicious falsehood or slander.

   to stab a person's reputation

6. (transitive) To roughen a brick wall with a pick so as to hold plaster.
7. (transitive) To pierce folded sheets, near their back edges, for the passage of thread or wire.
8. (transitive, oil industry) To guide the end of a pipe into a coupling when making up a connection.
   • 2005, Paul Carter, Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, Crows Nest, NSW: Allen and Unwin, page 57:

     [O]ne of the derrickman's jobs is to "stab" the pipe.

• backstabbing
• brain-stabbing
• stab yourself and pass the dagger
• stabbee
• stabber
• twice-stabbed lady beetle
• twice-stabbed ladybug
• twice-stabbed stink bug
• unstabbed

• “stab”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “stab”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Clipping of stabilizer or stabiliser.

stab (plural stabs)

1. (aviation, slang) The horizontal or vertical stabilizer of an aircraft.
   • 2020, Chris Brady, “737 MAX - MCAS”, in The Boeing 737 Technical Site‎, archived from the original on 23 January 2021:

     If the pilots used electric pitch trim, it would only pause MCAS for 5s; to deactivate it you have to switch off the STAB TRIM CUTOUT switches.

stab (not comparable)

1. (industrial relations) Clipping of established.
   • 1893, Proceedings of the Parliament of South Australia, page 313:

     Do you know whether any country offices pay their men by the thousand, or whether they are on stab wages? — I do not know. Some are paid stab wages, but I do not know whether there is much piece-work.

   • 1967, John Child, Industrial Relations in the British Printing Industry, page 113:

     The pressmen were granted a stab wage of 36s for a 60 hour week, and the extras for overtime and Sunday work […]

stab (plural not attested)

1. (industrial relations) Clipping of establishment.
   • 1892, The British Printer, volume 5, page 42:

     […] there were 286 overseers and 210 readers occupied in the 501 offices; 2,691 compositors were paid on the stab […]

• ABTs, ATBs, ATSB, BTAS, Bast, Bats, SATB, TBAs, TBSA, Tabs, bast, bats, tabs

From German Stab.

stab c (singular definite staben, plural indefinite stabe)

1. staff

• stab̓

From s- +‎ tab(a), from Proto-Salish *s-tam ("what?"; "something"), from *s- +‎ *tam (“thing; what”)

IPA^(key): /stɑb/

stab

1. (interrogative) what thing?, by what means?

   stab əw̓ə tiʔiɬ.

   What on earth is that?

stab

1. thing (plural: stab)

From German Stab.[1]

• IPA^(key): /stɑːb/

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stab c

1. a staff
2. a stick

• bast