[f. STING v.1 + -ER1.]
1. One who stings; applied fig. to Death. Also, one who goads or instigates; one who has a sharp tongue.
1552. Huloet, Prycker or stynger, Stigator, stimulator.
1577. Kendall, Flowers of Epigr., Trifles, 13. To stingers suche a stingyng crowne, of Nettelles doeth belong.
1602. Chettle, Hoffman, III. (1631), F 1 b. Haue ye not heard I haue bin a stinger, a tickler, a wormer.
1611. Cotgr., Esguillonneur, a pricker, stinger.
1612. Benvenuto’s Passenger, II. ii. 511. Pratlers, tatlers, stingers [Ital. mordaci].
a. 1618. Sylvester, Triumph Faith, III. ii. Life of our life, our death’s death, Stinger’s sting.
1827. Lamb, Poems, Epicedium, Going or Gone, 5. Death, that last Stinger.
2. An animal or plant that stings.
1593. G. Harvey, Pierce’s Super., 143. The gad-fly is a little creature; but some little creatures be stingers.
1602. [see VENGIBLE a. 2].
1616. T. Scot, Philomythie, B 1 b. He longs for hony, That mongst the angry Waspes thrusts his bold fingers, And from their neasts in Summer, hunts those stingers.
1862. T. W. Harris, Insects Injur. Vegetation (ed. 3), 512. The insects of this order [Hymenoptera] may be divided into two groups, Stingers and Piercers.
1880. C. R. Markham, Peruv. Bark, 293. The Girardinia Leschenaultii, or Nilgiri nettle, a most virulent stinger.
3. Something that stings or smarts; e.g., a sharp blow, or the hand that delivers it; something that causes sharp distress, a pungent speech or crushing argument; a sharp frost. Now colloq.
1576. Gascoigne, Grief of Joy, IV. xxiii. But that so sweete a synger Shoulde dye so sone: that sorrowe seemde a stynger.
1623. Webster, Devil’s Law-Case, IV. ii. I 2 b. San. That’s a stinger, tis a good wench, be not daunted.
1823. ‘Jon Bee,’ Dict. Turf, Stinger, a sharp and rapid hit.
1853. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour (1893), 355. My eyes, but we’re in for a stinger!
1855. Browning, Fra Lippo, 90. Old Aunt Lapaccia trussed me with one hand, (Its fellow was a stinger as I knew).
1861. Dickens, Gt. Expect., xxv. At nine o’clock … the gun fires…. And when you hear him go, I think you’ll say he’s a Stinger.
1900. A. Upward, Eben. Lobb, 46. I wrote him back a stinger which he will not soon forget.
1904. H. G. Wells, Food of Gods, II. i. 166. One [button] hit me a regular stinger jest ’ere, mum.
