Other forms: stinging, stung, stings
To sting is to give a sharp, burning little pain. A wasp stings your arm, a nettle stings your leg, soap stings when it runs into your eye.
The noun covers both the wound and the weapon: a wasp sting swells for two days, and a bee's sting is the barb it leaves behind. Keep it apart from bite — mosquitoes and ants bite, bees and wasps and jellyfish sting. The verb is irregular: sting, stung, stung. Words sting too, and that use is common in newspapers: stung by the criticism, a stinging reply, the remark stung more than she let on. In police English a sting is a trap set to catch criminals in the act.
1verbstingTo cause a sharp burning pain, especially by piercing the skin.
“The nettles sting even through thin trousers.”
2verbhurtTo hurt someone's feelings sharply.
“Her flat 'no thank you' stings for the rest of the afternoon.”
3nounwoundA wound or sharp pain caused by an insect or plant.
“The sting on his ankle was red and hot.”
4nounpiercesThe sharp part of an insect or plant that pierces the skin.
“A bee leaves its sting in the skin and dies.”
5nouncarefullyA carefully planned trick used to catch criminals.
“Two officers set up a sting outside the warehouse.”
Old English sting meant a stab or thrust made with a pointed instrument, and the wound such a thrust left behind; the form goes back to Proto-Germanic *stingaz. The word began as the puncture rather than the burning. A wasp is still stabbing you — the fire only arrives afterwards.
Proto-Germanic
*stingaz
Old English
sting
Middle English
styng
English, today
sting
Built from
From Middle English styng, sting, stynge, stenge, from Old English sting, stincg (“a sting, stab, thrust made with a pointed instrument; the wound made by a stab or sting”), from Proto-Germanic stingaz; possibly also from Old English stynġ, from Proto-Germanic stungiz.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA