sting

American  

[sting] / stɪŋ /

verb (used with object)

• stings,
  present (3rd person singular)
• stung,
  past participle,  past
• stang,
  past (Obsolete)
• stinging
  present participle

1. to prick or wound with a sharp-pointed, often venom-bearing organ.

2. to affect painfully or irritatingly as a result of contact, as certain plants do.

   to be stung by nettles.

3. to cause to smart or to cause a sharp pain.

   The blowing sand stung his eyes.

4. to cause mental or moral anguish.

   to be stung with remorse.

5. to goad or drive, as by sharp irritation.

6. Slang. to cheat or take advantage of, especially to overcharge; soak.

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verb (used without object)

• stings,
  present (3rd person singular)
• stung,
  past participle,  past
• stang,
  past (Obsolete)
• stinging
  present participle

1. to use, have, or wound with a sting, as bees.

2. to cause a sharp, smarting pain, as some plants, an acrid liquid or gas, or a slap or hit.

3. to cause acute mental pain or irritation, as annoying thoughts or one's conscience.

   The memory of that insult still stings.

4. to feel acute mental pain or irritation.

   He was stinging from the blow to his pride.

5. to feel a smarting pain, as from a blow or the sting of an insect.

   His cheeks stung from the hail.

noun

• stings
  plural

1. an act or instance of stinging.

   The allergic reaction to a sting may be delayed for several hours.

2. a wound, pain, or smart caused by stinging.

   After an hour or so, the throbbing of the wasp sting subsided to a dull ache.

3. any sharp physical or mental wound, hurt, or pain.

   Laser treatment for wrinkles sounds like magic, but some people can’t tolerate the accompanying sting and burn.

4. anything or an element in anything that wounds, pains, or irritates.

   to feel the sting of defeat;

   Death, where is thy sting?

5. capacity to wound or pain.

   Satire has a sting.

6. a sharp stimulus or incitement.

   driven by the sting of jealousy;

   the sting of ambition.

7. Botany. a glandular hair on certain plants, as nettles, that emits an irritating fluid.

8. Zoology. any of various sharp-pointed, often venom-bearing organs of insects and other animals capable of inflicting painful or dangerous wounds.

9. Slang.

   1. confidence game.

   2. an ostensibly illegal operation, as the buying of stolen goods or the bribing of public officials, used by undercover investigators to collect evidence of wrongdoing.

10. Television. Sometimes a brief burst of music or a sound effect used to emphasize a moment of humor, drama, or fright in a show, or to punctuate a transition or another part of a show’s structure.

sting British  

/ stɪŋ /

verb

1. (of certain animals and plants) to inflict a wound on (an organism) by the injection of poison

2. to feel or cause to feel a sharp mental or physical pain

3. (tr) to goad or incite (esp in the phrase sting into action )

4. informal (tr) to cheat, esp by overcharging

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noun

1. a skin wound caused by the poison injected by certain insects or plants

2. pain caused by or as if by the sting of a plant or animal

3. a mental pain or pang

   a sting of conscience

4. a sharp pointed organ, such as the ovipositor of a wasp, by which poison can be injected into the prey

5. the ability to sting

   a sharp sting in his criticism

6. something as painful or swift of action as a sting

   the sting of death

7. a sharp stimulus or incitement

8. botany another name for stinging hair

9. slang a swindle or fraud

10. slang a trap set up by the police to entice a person to commit a crime and thereby produce evidence

11. an unexpected and unpleasant ending

sting Idioms  

1. see take the sting out of.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• stingingness
  noun
• resting
  verb
• outsting
  verb (used with object)
• stinging
  adjective
• stingless
  adjective
• unstinging
  adjective
• stingingly
  adverb
• unstingingly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• stings
  plural

Participles

• stinging
  present
• stung
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• sting
  simple
• stings
  simple
• have stung
  perfect
• has stung
  perfect
• am stinging
  progressive
• are stinging
  progressive
• is stinging
  progressive
• have been stinging
  perfect progressive
• has been stinging
  perfect progressive

Past

• stang
  simple
• stung
  simple
• had stung
  perfect
• was stinging
  progressive
• were stinging
  progressive
• had been stinging
  perfect progressive

Future

• will sting
  simple
• will have stung
  perfect
• will be stinging
  progressive
• will have been stinging
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of sting

First recorded before 900; Middle English verb stingen, Old English stingan “to pierce”; cognate with Old Norse stinga “to pierce,” Gothic -stangan (in usstangan “to pull out”); the noun is derivative of the verb

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Explanation

Sting most commonly refers to the wound inflicted by a bee or hornet, or to a kind of burning pain, like the brief sting when your doctor gives you a vaccine. A nasty remark can also sting. "Float like a butterfly. Sting like a bee!" was Muhammad Ali's famous taunt to other fighters. But insects and boxers aren't the only ones who can sting. When someone says something that's both mean and true, it can sting. Such things are often referred to as stinging remarks. But if you're thinking crime, then a sting is a con-job that takes planning to pull off. When the cops spend months creating a fake crime-ring in order to catch criminals in the act, it's referred to a "sting operation."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sting stings stang stung stinging

And he must also live with the irony that he was potentially caught out not by a sophisticated high-tech sting, but by the oldest trick in the book: a honey trap.

From BBC ● Nov. 9, 2026

Tuesday’s gains take some of the sting out of a difficult October.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 27, 2026

So maybe the sting has not dissipated, not after the Brewers so rudely swept the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2026

A meeting with a source in Yekaterinburg, in west-central Russia, for a story on Russian military production turned out to be a sting operation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026

The third time I do this, it flies at my face like its gonna sting me.

From "Free Lunch" by Rex Ogle

Pepsi gets only a small part of its sales from KFC, but the loss still stings.

From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026

I am happy for friends and family who have homes, but it still stings.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 14, 2026

For Nooria, this stings even more because she says it took a lot for her to get here.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

Immigration officials have been setting up stings on interstate highways for months, sweeping up hundreds of migrants who allegedly are in the country illegally.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026

A sign next to one of the tanks had said that there are 150 million jellyfish stings every year.

From "The Thing About Jellyfish" by Ali Benjamin

But I have strong suspicions you are, and if so, as the children say, "I hope that stang!"

From Time Magazine Archive

A blessing on the cheery gang Wha dearly like a jig or sang, An’ never think o’ right an’ wrang By square an’ rule, But as the clegs o’ feeling stang Are wise or fool.

From The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. With a New Life of the Poet, and Notices, Critical and Biographical by Allan Cunningham by Robert Burns

Now, in the middle part of the third hour, the air of the Gorge did begin that it was heavy, and to have a seeming of fumes that stang something upon the throat, odd whiles.

From The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson

"The Lord has taken away the stang of pain out of my life," she said.

From The Men of the Moss-Hags Being a history of adventure taken from the papers of William Gordon of Earlstoun in Galloway by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett

Neer a bit," said Steenie, laughing; "he has braw broad shouthers, and I just took measure o' them wi' the stang.

From The Antiquary — Volume 02 by Sir Walter Scott

After being stung by the price swings, farmers petitioned Congress, and future U.S.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 20, 2026

All of a sudden, Bass was a staggering champion lunging at a revived Raman, who swung and stung and ducked the way only a hungry up-and-comer can.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2026

The club has been stung by the chain of events and believe they have done all they could to avoid it.

From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026

Druckenmiller said he wasn’t ashamed of using AI—but was a little stung by the reaction.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026

The ticket man's face twitches like he's been stung.

From "Born Behind Bars" by Padma Venkatraman

Leveraged ETFs offer even gaudier results over short periods, and stinging losses too.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2026

Mixed-genet pairings resulted in the corals deploying stinging cells, a hostile response that can be likened to organ rejection in humans.

From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026

"I would be lying if we're still not stinging from when we did that."

From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026

However, nearly all of that pattern can be traced to one particular group: the aculeate Hymenoptera, which includes stinging wasps, bees and ants.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 15, 2026

Palms stinging, I reeled back, the alarmed voices merging into a dull liquid roar.

From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros

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