sting
/ˈstɪŋ/ noun B2- 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.
- A sharp, localized pain primarily on the epidermis. · That plant will give a little sting if you touch it.
- 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.
- 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.
- A short percussive phrase played by a drummer to accent the punchline in a comedy show.
Plural stings
From the library
She had been a very small child when she had heard one aunt say of her to another, “What a pity she is such a dark, homely little thing.” Marilla was every day of fifty before the sting had gone out of that memory.
It would have been ever so much sweeter to her if he had felt the sting of his defeat.
“Go to the strangers and sting them to death!” commanded the Witch, and the bees turned and flew rapidly until they came to where Dorothy and her friends were walking.
“Take out my straw and scatter it over the little girl and the dog and the Lion,” he said to the Woodman, “and the bees cannot sting them.” This the Woodman did, and as Dorothy lay close beside the Lion and held Toto in her arms, the straw covered them entirely.
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