Other forms: stabbed, stabbing, stabs
To stab is to drive something sharp and pointed into someone or something. A knife into a body. A fork stabbed into a sausage to see whether it is done, a finger stabbing at the lift button that will not light up.
The noun is both the blow and the wound: a single stab to the chest, three stab wounds counted by the pathologist. It also names a sudden sharp feeling that arrives like a blade — a stab of pain, a stab of guilt, a stab of jealousy when you see the photograph. Two fixed phrases pull in opposite directions: have a stab at something means give it a cheerful try, while stab someone in the back means betray them. A stab in the dark is a guess with nothing behind it. Watch the preposition, too: stab someone is contact, stab AT something is aiming without necessarily landing.
1verbstabTo push a knife or other pointed thing into someone or something.
“He was stabbed twice and left in the doorway.”
2verbjabTo make short, sharp poking movements at something.
“She stabbed at the keyboard with one finger.”
3nounblowA blow or wound made with something pointed.
“The pathologist counted the stab wounds and stopped at nine.”
4nounpangA sudden sharp feeling.
“He felt a stab of guilt as the door closed behind her.”
5nounattemptAn attempt at something.
“I had never made bread before, but I had a stab at it.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Stab first shows up in Scottish English, beside Scots stab and stob, 'a pointed stick or stake; a thrust with a pointed weapon', and Middle English stabbe, 'a stab'. That is probably a variant of Middle English stubbe, 'pointed stick, stake, thorn, stump', from Old Norse stubbi. A stab and a stub are the same broken-off point, one of them put to work as a weapon.
Middle English
stabbe — a stab
English, today
stab
Built from
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.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA