STABBING

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does stabbing mean? 

• STABBING (adjective)
  The adjective STABBING has 2 senses:

1. causing physical or especially psychological injury

2. painful as if caused by a sharp instrument

  Familiarity information: STABBING used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• STABBING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Causing physical or especially psychological injury

Synonyms:

stabbing; wounding

Context example:

wounding and false charges of disloyalty

Similar:

harmful (causing or capable of causing harm)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Painful as if caused by a sharp instrument

Synonyms:

cutting; keen; knifelike; lancinate; lancinating; piercing; stabbing

Context example:

lancinating pain

Similar:

sharp (keenly and painfully felt; as if caused by a sharp edge or point)

 Context examples 

Act fourth displayed the despairing Roderigo on the point of stabbing himself because he has been told that Zara has deserted him.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Sharp stabbing chest pain or reproduction of pain on palpation.

(Atypical Coronary Artery Disease Symptom, NCI Thesaurus/ACC)

It may also relieve neuropathic pain, the burning, stabbing, or stinging pain that may arise from damage to nerves caused by some types of cancer or cancer treatment.

(Flecainide, NCI Dictionary)

“Rocks!” they yelled, stabbing into the air with their forefingers.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And for the first time since the stabbing the Cockney had appeared outside the galley without his knife.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) Check Yes or No if the adjective applies to your pain; stabbing.

(BPI - Stabbing, NCI Thesaurus)

Such sordid things as stabbing affrays were evidently not fit subjects for conversation with a lady.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

If you could have looked into Allardyce’s back shop, you would have seen a dead pig swung from a hook in the ceiling, and a gentleman in his shirt sleeves furiously stabbing at it with this weapon.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Another stone struck him on the side, and he heard a sound like a breaking stick, with a keen stabbing pain which shot through his chest.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He had once been a skilful sculptor and had earned an honest living, but he had taken to evil courses and had twice already been in jail—once for a petty theft, and once, as we had already heard, for stabbing a fellow-countryman.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)