[-ING1.]
1. The action or an act of STAB v. in various senses.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XVII. 785 (Edinb. MS.). Off stabing, [Camb. MS. staffing], stoking, and striking Thar maid thai sturdy defending.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VIII. 6534. For his hors rycht weill armyt was, That he þare stabyng dred weill les.
1604. Shaks., Oth., III. iv. 6. He’s a Soldier, and for me to say a souldier lyes, ’tis stabbing.
1765. Museum Rust., IV. 90. I was obliged to perform the operation of stabbing in three several parts of the belly before the ox was relieved.
1769. Blackstone, Comm., IV. 193. This statute was made on account of the frequent quarrels and stabbings with short daggers.
b. attrib.
1837. W. B. Adams, Carriages, 152. An awl called a *stabbing-awl.
1894–5. Kipling, 2nd Jungle Bk., 155. Kadlu … crossed the hut for his *stabbing-harpoon.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Stabbing-machine, a machine for perforating a pile of folded and gathered signatures for the insertion of the stitching-thread.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Stabbing-press.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Stabbing-press, a bookbinder’s press, in which pointed rods are driven through the folded sheets near the back, to stitch them together.
1892. Rider Haggard, Nada, 33. Armed with the short *stabbing-spear.
† 2. Dicing. (See quot.) Obs.
1680. Cotton, Compl. Gamester (ed. 2), 12. Lastly, by Stabbing, that is, having a Smooth Box, and small in the bottom, you drop in both your Dice in such manner as you would have them sticking therein by reason of its narrowness [etc.].
