sting
[verb]
Synonyms:
- hurt, burn, pain, smart, tingle, wound
- cheat, defraud, do (slang), fleece, overcharge, rip off (slang), swindle

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English Thesaurus: bite, chew, gnaw, nip somebody/give somebody a nip, nibble, ...

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

Sting
(1951–) a British songwriter, singer, and actor who used to sing with the pop group The Police until they separated, and has worked successfully on his own since then. His songs include Don’t Stand So Close to Me (1981) and If I Ever Lose My Faith in You (1993). He is also known for his work to protect the environment. His real name is Gordon Sumner.

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

I. sting¹ /stɪŋ/ verb (past tense and past participle stung /stʌŋ/)
[Language: Old English; Origin: stingan]

1. [intransitive and transitive] if an insect or a plant stings you, it makes a very small hole in your skin and you feel a sharp pain because of a poisonous substance:
He was stung by a bee.
► A bee, wasp, scorpion, or plant can sting you. For a mosquito or snake, use bite.

2. [intransitive and transitive] to make something hurt with a sudden sharp pain, or to hurt like this:
Antiseptic stings a little.
Chopping onions makes my eyes sting.

3. [intransitive, transitive usually passive] if you are stung by a remark, it makes you feel upset:
She had been stung by criticism.
sting somebody into (doing) something
Her harsh words stung him into action.
sting somebody for something British English informal

1. to charge someone too much for something:
The garage stung him for £300.

2. to borrow money from someone:
Can I sting you for a fiver?

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

II. sting² noun

1. WOUND [countable] a wound or mark made when an insect or plant stings you:
a bee sting

2. INSECT [countable] British English the sharp needle-shaped part of an insect’s or animal’s body, with which it stings you Synonym : stinger American English

3. PAIN [singular] a sharp pain in your eyes or skin, caused by being hit, by smoke etc:
She felt the sting of tears in her eyes.

4. a sting in the tail if a story, event, or announcement has a sting in its tail, there is an unpleasant part at the end of it

5. [singular] the upsetting or bad effect of a situation:
the sting of rejection
take the sting out of something (=make something less unpleasant or painful)
She smiled to take the sting out of her words.

6. CRIME [countable] a clever way of catching criminals in which the police secretly pretend to be criminals themselves

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

sting
noun
I. of an insect, etc.
ADJ. dangerous, nasty, painful | bee, wasp, etc. | nettle, etc. | deadly, fatal
VERB + STING have The scorpion has a sting that can be deadly.
get You can get a nasty sting from a jellyfish.
give sb | feel

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

sting
II. sharp pain
ADJ. hot, sharp the hot sting of tears
VERB + STING feel He felt the sharp sting of the soap in his eyes.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

bite to use your teeth to cut, crush, or chew something:
The dog bit me!
I sometimes bite my fingernails when I’m nervous.
He bit into the apple.
chew to keep biting something that is in your mouth:
Helen was chewing a piece of gum.
He was chewing on a cigar.
gnaw if an animal gnaws something, it bites it repeatedly:
The dog was in the yard gnawing on a bone.
nip somebody/give somebody a nip to give someone or something a small sharp bite:
When I took the hamster out of his cage, he nipped me.
nibble to take a lot of small bites from something:
A fish nibbled at the bait.
She sat at her desk, nibbling her sandwich.
sink your teeth into somebody/something to bite someone or something with a lot of force, so that your teeth go right into them:
The dog sank its teeth into my leg.
He sank his teeth into the steak.
chomp on something informal to bite something and chew it in a noisy way:
The donkey was chomping on a carrot.
He was chomping away on big slice of toast.
sting if an insect stings you, it makes a very small hole in your skin. You use sting about bees, wasps, and scorpions, and bite about mosquitoes, ants, spiders, and snakes:
She stepped on a wasps’ nest and must have been stung at least 20 times.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲

hurt if part of your body hurts, it feels painful:
My chest hurts when I cough.
ache to hurt with a continuous pain:
I’d been walking all day and my legs were really aching.
throb to feel a bad pain that comes and goes again in a regular and continuous way:
Lou had a terrible headache and his whole head seemed to be throbbing.
sting to feel a sharp pain, or to make someone feel this, especially in your eyes, throat, or skin:
My throat stings every time I swallow.
This injection may sting a little.
smart to hurt with a sudden sharp pain – used especially about your eyes, or your skin where something has hit you:
Her eyes were smarting from the thick smoke.
Jackson’s face was still smarting from the punch.
burn to feel very hot and painful or uncomfortable:
Be careful because this chemical will make your skin burn.
His eyes were burning because of the gas.
pinch if something you are wearing pinches you, it is too tight and presses painfully on your skin:
The shirt was a bit too small and it was pinching my neck.
something is killing me spoken informal used when something feels very painful:
My legs are killing me.
These shoes are killing me.
a bad back/leg/arm etc if you have a bad back/leg/arm etc, it feels painful:
He’s off work with a bad back.
pain noun [uncountable and countable] the feeling when part of your body hurts:
A broken leg can cause a lot of pain.
He felt a sharp pain in his chest.
twinge noun [countable] a sudden slight pain that comes and then disappears quickly:
When I bent down I felt a twinge in my back.
discomfort noun [uncountable] formal an uncomfortable feeling in your body, or a slight pain:
The procedure takes five minutes and only causes slight discomfort.
agony noun [uncountable] a feeling of great pain, or a situation in which you feel a lot of pain:
the agony of childbirth
I was in agony by the time I got to the hospital.
It was agony (=very painful)getting up out of bed.
suffering noun [uncountable] continuous physical or mental pain, which makes someone very unhappy:
I just wanted someone to put an end to my suffering.
the suffering of the earthquake victims

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲

hurt to damage part of your body, or someone else’s body:
She slipped on the ice and hurt herself badly.
Be careful you don’t hurt anyone with that knife.
injure to hurt yourself quite severely, or to be hurt in an accident or fighting:
One of our players has injured his leg, and will be out of the game for weeks.
Four people have been seriously injured on the Arizona highway.
wound to deliberately hurt someone using a weapon such as a knife or gun:
The gunmen shot and killed twelve people and wounded three others.
maim /meɪm/ [usually passive] to hurt someone very severely, especially so that they lose an arm, leg etc, often as the result of an explosion:
In countries where there are landmines, people are killed and maimed daily.
break to hurt a part of your body by breaking a bone in it:
The X-ray showed that I had broken my wrist.
bruise to hurt a part of your body when you fall on it or hit it, causing a dark mark to appear on your skin:
Cathy fell off her bike and bruised her legs badly.
sprain/twist to hurt your knee, wrist, shoulder etc by suddenly twisting it while you are moving:
I jumped down from the wall and landed awkwardly, spraining my ankle.
strain/pull to hurt one of your muscles by stretching it or using it too much:
When you are lifting heavy loads, be careful not to strain a back muscle.
dislocate to damage a joint in your body in a way that moves the two parts of the joint out of their normal position:
Our best batsman dislocated his shoulder during training.
paralyse [usually passive] to make someone lose the ability to move part or all of their body:
A climbing accident had left him paralysed from the chest down.
ache to hurt with a continuous pain:
I’d been walking all day and my legs were really aching.
throb to feel a bad pain that comes and goes again in a regular and continuous way:
Lou had a terrible headache and his whole head seemed to be throbbing.
sting to feel a sharp pain, or to make someone feel this, especially in your eyes, throat, or skin:
My throat stings every time I swallow.
This injection may sting a little.
smart to hurt with a sudden sharp pain – used especially about your eyes, or your skin where something has hit you:
Her eyes were smarting from the thick smoke.
Jackson’s face was still smarting from the punch.
burn to feel very hot and painful or uncomfortable:
Be careful because this chemical will make your skin burn.
His eyes were burning because of the gas.
pinch if something you are wearing pinches you, it is too tight and presses painfully on your skin:
The shirt was a bit too small and it was pinching my neck.
something is killing me spoken informal used when something feels very painful:
My legs are killing me.
These shoes are killing me.
a bad back/leg/arm etc if you have a bad back/leg/arm etc, it feels painful:
He’s off work with a bad back.
upset [not before noun] unhappy and worried because something unpleasant or disappointing has happened:
Miss Hurley is too upset to speak to anyone at the moment.
She’s still deeply upset about her uncle’s death.
He’s upset that he didn’t get an invitation to their wedding.
distressed very upset:
Priests have been counselling distressed relatives of the victims.
She was visibly distressed after hearing of her husband’s accident.
Matilda was too distressed to speak.
distraught written so upset and worried that you are unable to do normal things, and nothing can make you feel calm:
Benson was so distraught over the breakup of his marriage that he felt like committing suicide.
The distraught parents of the missing baby have made a public appeal for her return.
in a (terrible) state British English informal so upset that you cannot stop crying:
She called me one night in a terrible state, saying she wanted to die.
I could see that she was in a bit of a state.
be worked up informal to be very upset or angry, so that you think things are worse than they really are:
I was too worked up to sleep.
It’s not worth getting worked up about. Anyone can make a mistake.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲