Also 5–7 stabbe, 6 stappe. [Related to STAB v. Cf. mod.Sc. stab, a large needle, a prickle.]
The form stappe in quot. 1583 may possibly be a distinct word, but has not been found elsewhere.
1. A wound produced by stabbing.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 471/1. Stabbe, or wownde of smytynge, stigma.
1605. Shaks., Macb., II. iii. 119. His gash’d stabs, look’d like a Breach in Nature, For Ruines wastfull entrance.
1826. S. Cooper, First Lines Surg. (ed. 5), 134. An important punctured wound, such as the stab of a bayonet.
1841. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, vi. You found me with this stab and an ugly bruise or two.
2. An act of stabbing; a thrust dealt with some sharp-pointed instrument producing a wound in the flesh.
1530. Palsgr., 275/1. Stabbe with a daggar, coup destoc.
1583. Stocker, Civ. Warres Lowe C., IV. 58 b. After he was dead, the enemie gaue hym many a stappe with his dagger.
1610. Shaks., Temp., III. iii. 63. The Elements … Of whom your swords are temper’d, may as well … with bemockt-at-Stabs Kill the still closing waters, as [etc.].
1644. Sir E. Dering, Prop. Sacr., b iiij b. A young fellow … did aim the stabbe of his knife into the Kings belly.
1722. De Foe, Moll Flanders (1840), 203. A stab that touched the vitals.
1746. Hervey, Medit. (1818), 27. A poisonous draught, or a deadly stab.
1830. Tennyson, Oriana, 50. Oh! deathful stabs were dealt apace.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, iii. (1880), 95. Master Perch … will resent rough … handling by a smart stab or two.
b. fig.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., III. ii. 89. This sudden stab of Rancour I misdoubt.
1746. Wesley, Princ. Methodist, Pref. After many Stabs in the Dark, I was publickly attacked … by my own familiar Friend.
1796. Burke, Lett. to Mrs. Crewe, Corr. IV. 335. A stab was attempted on my reputation.
1894. Weyman, Man in Black, 201. This stab, that a little earlier would have pierced her very heart-strings, did but prick her.
1909. Edith Rickert, Beggar in Heart, 24. She remembered, with a stab of pain, the quiver in his voice.
c. The stab: death by stabbing. Also fig.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 124. With too silly arguments goeth about to give them the deadly stab.
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., xx. To kill one [raven] in their presence, is such bad luck that it deserves the stab.
1891. Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, xxxviii. Life—death—to-morrow; the rudis or the stab? Which shall it be?
d. transf. A vigorous thrust as if to stab some one.
1902. Mabel Barnes-Grundy, Thames Camp, 196. Sewing is rather restful, and you can give such vent to your feelings with each stab of the needle.
e. fig. A flash of bright color against dark surroundings.
1894. Emma Brooke, Superfluous Woman (ed. 4), III. 4. The moving stabs of colour in passing trams and other vehicles.
1903. Speaker, 17 Oct., 64/2. The blackbird in his jet-black dress, the stab of colour of his bill accentuating the hue.
3. Billiards. A short, stiff stroke that causes the striker’s ball to remain dead or to travel but slowly after striking the object ball; more fully stab stroke; hence stab cannon, screw, a cannon or screw made with this stroke.
1873. Bennett & ‘Cavendish,’ Billiards, 192. There is another screw stroke called stab screw…. If the striker desires to stop his own ball dead as soon as it strikes the object ball full,… the object is to be attained by means of stab. Ibid., 281. The best chance left is a stab cannon…. The effect of the stab … is to carry the white slowly on to the spot-white.
1885. Billiards Simplified (1889), 157. The way to play the stroke is by means of what is known as a stab stroke.
4. Comb. stab-awl, a shoemaker’s tool used for piercing leather; stab-cannon (see sense 3); stab-culture, a CULTURE (3 c) in which the medium is inoculated by means of a needle thrust deeply into its substance; stab-screw, -stroke (see sense 3); stab-wort, the Wood-sorrel (Oxalis acetosella), believed to be so called with reference to its supposed healing properties (also STOBWORT, STUBWORT); stab-wound, a punctured wound produced by an act or the action of stabbing. Also stab-like adj.
1833. Life Adam Clarke, I. 201. He borrowed a *stab awl and a hammer, from a shoemaker.
1889. Science, 20 Dec., 418. The mere production of a direct *stab-culture from one organ, such as the spleen … affords very incomplete … information.
1887. Christina Tyrrell, trans. E. Werner’s Her Son, I. 79. The contemptuous glance of those eyes penetrated with a *stab-like pain to his heart’s core.
1640. Parkinson, Theat. Bot., 747. We [call it] in English Wood Sorrell … *Stabbewort.
1665. Lovell, Herbal (ed. 2), 419. Stubwort or Stabwort, see Wood sorrell.
1897. Brit. Med. Jrnl., 27 March, 774. A *stab wound in the right loin.
