[-ING2.]
1. Of a weapon: That stabs.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., IV. iv. 748. They often giue vs (Souldiers) the Lye, but wee pay them for it with stamped Coyne, not stabbing Steele.
1813. Scott, Rokeby, VI. xxxiii. But still his struggling force he rears, ’Gainst hacking brands and stabbing spears.
b. fig.
1599. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Hum., IV. iv. Come, you’le never leave your stabbing similes.
1682. Owtram, Serm., 403. That’s a black and stabbing thought.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Lett. to Gentl. & Ladies, Wks. 1709, III. II. 107. I dare trust my self no longer with such stabbing Ideas.
1745. Eliza Haywood, Female Spect., No. 13 (1748), III. 15. Instead of reasoning with Zimene, and perswading her to moderation in so stabbing a circumstance.
2. Of pain: Sharp and sudden, characterized by twinges comparable to the effect of a stab.
1763. Colebrook, in Phil. Trans., LIII. 347. She complained of most excruciating stabbing pains in both breasts.
1896. Mary Beaumont, Joan Seaton, 175. Unconscious of the stabbing pain in his foot.
Hence Stabbingly adv.
1673. S. Parker, Reproof Reh. Transp., 287. This intimation … is as stabbingly suggested as the story of Sardanapalus.
