stab1 verbstab2 noun
stabstab1 /stæb/ ●●○ verb (past tense and past participle stabbed, present participle stabbing) 
VERB TABLE
stab
| Simple Form | ||
| Present | I, you, we, they | stab |
| he, she, it | stabs | |
| Past | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | stabbed |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have stabbed |
| he, she, it | has stabbed | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had stabbed |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will stab |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have stabbed |
| Continuous Form | ||
| Present | I | am stabbing |
| he, she, it | is stabbing | |
| you, we, they | are stabbing | |
| Past | I, he, she, it | was stabbing |
| you, we, they | were stabbing | |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have been stabbing |
| he, she, it | has been stabbing | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had been stabbing |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will be stabbing |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have been stabbing |
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- Betty Carroll was stabbed 61 times and left to die on the floor of her Escondido home.
- Her assailant lunged, stabbing at her again and again.
- Kitty Davison was found stabbed to death one night in 1997.
- Luca stabbed her in the thigh with a breadknife.
- Meyers was stabbed once in the abdomen and once in the neck.
- The victim had been stabbed six times.
- Gail's stabbed outside a nightclub..
- Half a block away, a woman is raped and stabbed to death behind an abandoned church.
- He stabbed the brake, stabbed too hard, and his back wheels slurred in the dirt.
- He had been stabbed fourteen times.
- Maria was stabbed seven-teen times and died that night.
- There was a scuffle and Murray was stabbed in the chest.
- Tracy Barrett, 20, stabbed black magic follower Ian Clark, 59, several times with six steak knives.
THESAURUSto attack a person
to use violence against someone and try to hurt them: · She was attacked by a man with a baseball bat.· Police dogs are trained to attack.
if a group of people ambush someone, they hide and wait for them and then attack them: · The judge was ambushed by gunmen as he drove to work at the courthouse.
to attack someone and take money from them in a public place such as a street: · He was mugged on his way home from school.
to attack someone with a knife: · The victim had been stabbed in the neck.
to attack and hurt someone – used especially when talking about this as a criminal offence: · He assaulted a flight attendant who refused to serve him more drinks.
written to be attacked by a group of people: · He died outside his home after being set upon by a gang of youths.
to suddenly change your behaviour and attack the person you are with, when they do not expect this: · The dog suddenly turned on him, sinking its teeth into his arm.
Longman Language Activatorto attack someone to use violence against someone and try to hurt them: · A woman was attacked by three youths while she was out jogging in Central Park.· Police dogs are trained to attack in certain circumstances.· He was badly injured when one of his own bulls attacked him. attack somebody with something: · Her husband attacked her with a knife.
to attack someone and take money from them in a public place such as a street: · Since moving to New Jersey, he has been mugged at gunpoint twice.· If anyone ever tried to mug me, I would throw my bag and run.get mugged: · I was scared I would get mugged or raped.
to attack and hurt someone - use this especially to talk about the crime of attacking someone: · He assaulted a female flight attendant who refused to serve him more drinks.· Some supporters ran onto the field and assaulted the referee.sexually assault somebody: · She was kidnapped and sexually assaulted at gunpoint.
to attack someone by pushing a knife into them: · The victim had been stabbed six times.stab somebody in something: · Meyers was stabbed once in the abdomen and once in the neck.stab at: · Her assailant lunged, stabbing at her again and again.
to attack someone with a sudden violent movement: go for somebody: · Charlie went for Murray as soon as he entered the room, pushing him up against the wall.go for somebody with something: · One day Grandma got so mad she went for Grandpa with the kitchen knife.go for somebody's throat/ears/eyes etc: · The dog went straight for my throat, without warning.· If you are attacked, go for your attacker's eyes as they are the most vulnerable part of the face.
to attack someone very violently, hitting them repeatedly and without control: lay into somebody: · From the moment the bell rang, Tyson laid into his opponent.lay into somebody with something: · The video shows a policeman repeatedly laying into a protestor with his baton.
to betray a friend or someone who trusts you to be disloyal to your friends or to someone who trusts you, often causing serious harm to them as a result: · He betrayed his friends in order to save his own life. betray somebody to the police/government etc (=give the police etc information about someone): · Olga's best friend betrayed her to the secret police.betray somebody's trust/confidence/friendship etc (=betray someone who trusts you): · I still have bitter feelings for Robert. What can I say? He completely betrayed my trust.feel betrayed (=feel that someone you trust has betrayed you): · When I heard what she had said about me I felt angry and betrayed.
to betray someone who trusts you, especially someone that you work with, by saying or doing something that will cause them a lot of harm and get you an advantage: · He seems friendly, but he wouldn't hesitate to stab you in the back if he thought it would help him get your job.· Thatcher was stabbed in the back by her former friends and colleagues in the Conservative Party.
to betray a group of people who trusted you to help them, in order to gain money or power for yourself: · The workers were promised that they would not lose their jobs as a result of the merger. Later they found out that they had been sold down the river.
great disloyalty to someone who trusts you, for example by secretly tricking them, or helping their enemies: · When the king learned of his brother's treachery, he quickly ordered his execution.· After a furious argument during which he accused the prime minister of treachery, he announced that he would resign his Cabinet position.
with scissors, a knife, or a sharp object to divide something into two or more pieces, using a knife or scissors: · He cut the string and carefully unwrapped the parcel.cut something in two/cut something in half: · Mandy cut the paper in half and gave a piece to each child.cut something up/cut up something (=into several pieces): · Tommy sat on the floor, cutting up old magazines.cut something open/cut open something: · Rescue workers had to use special equipment to cut open the steel doors.
to cut something with scissors using quick small cuts: · She snipped the thread which held the two pieces of cloth together .
to make a long narrow cut through something, especially skin or cloth: · He killed the goat by slitting its throat.slit something open/slit open something: · Diane slit the envelope open with a knife.slit your wrists: · Graham slit his wrists in a suicide attempt.
to cut something quickly and violently with a knife, because you want to damage it or cause an injury : · The painting had been slashed with a knife.· Someone had slashed the tyres on Bayle's car.slash your wrists: · She slashed her wrists with a razor blade.
to push a knife into someone's body in order to kill or seriously injure them: · Betty Carroll was stabbed 61 times and left to die on the floor of her Escondido home.stab somebody in the heart/arm etc: · Luca stabbed her in the thigh with a breadknife.stab somebody to death (=kill someone by attacking them a knife): · Kitty Davison was found stabbed to death one night in 1997.
to cut something very roughly or violently: hack at something: · He picked up an axe and began hacking at the door.hack somebody to death: · All of the victims had been hacked to death.hack somebody/something to pieces: · The two women were hacked to pieces by their attackers.
to kill someone to make someone die, especially deliberately or violently: · He claims that he didn't mean to kill his wife.· The police believe the man may kill again.· What the hell were you doing! You could have killed me!· Official sources say that 20 people were killed in last night's air raids.· My sixteen-year-old son Louis was killed by a drunk driver two years ago.
to deliberately kill someone, especially after planning to do it: · Wilson is accused of murdering his daughter and her boyfriend.· One of the country's top judges has been murdered by the Mafia.
to murder an important or famous person, especially for political reasons: · President Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.· an attempt to assassinate the Pope
to kill someone by beating them, kicking them, or attacking them with a knife: · The court heard how the man was beaten to death by racist thugs.· A social worker was found stabbed to death in her office last night.· Smith had apparently been kicked to death.
to kill someone by putting a very harmful substance in their food or drink: · He believed that somebody was trying to poison him.· She had already poisoned three members of her own family with arsenic.
to kill someone by holding their face under water for a long time: · He accused his brother of trying to drown him.
to kill someone by pressing on their throat with both hands or with something such as a piece of string so that they cannot breathe: · Police said that the victim had been strangled.· He slid his hands around her neck and tried to strangle her.
informal to kill someone - often used humorously: bump off somebody/bump somebody off: · He kept marrying rich women and then bumping them off.have somebody bumped off (=arrange for someone to be killed): · His uncle decided to have him bumped off.
informal to kill someone, especially because they are a threat or their death would be convenient: · Perhaps his wife had taken the opportunity to do away with her rival.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY
He was stabbed to death in a fight. She had been stabbed in the chest repeatedly.COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
He was stabbed to death in a fight. She had been stabbed in the chest repeatedly.· He was stabbed to death in an attack outside his home.
· Richard felt a pang of guilt, knowing that he had forgotten her birthday.
(=when someone is shot or stabbed)· Two men died today in a shooting incident.
(=a sudden feeling of jealousy)· Polly felt a sharp pang of jealousy when she saw Paul with Suzanne.
(=sharp and sudden)· Marcus heard a shot and felt a stabbing pain at the back of his ankle.
(=a small feeling of pity)· Charles even felt a twinge of pity for Mrs Sweet.
literary (=a sudden short feeling of regret)· Kate watched her go with a pang of regret.
· Her body was found with 37 stab wounds at her home in William Street.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB· Sandra hid in undergrowth nearby as Robert was repeatedly stabbed in the chest and beaten by the gang.· Like hairdresser Katie, 19, she was stabbed repeatedly and sexually assaulted.· Sergeant Alan King died after being stabbed repeatedly by Vernage as he tried to crawl to safety.· She had been repeatedly stabbed and beaten about the head with a piece of wood.
NOUN· They banged tables and a little old professor would shout and stab the air with his cigar.· He was stabbing the air with his yellowed fingers.
· MacQuillan had been stabbed in the back, there were no palm or fingerprints on the weapon.· Some one reached through an open window and stabbed Bastidas in the back.· Nationalists supported the Wilson/Callaghan governments for years, only to be stabbed in the back in the end.· I was stabbed in the back because I don't have those problems with Steve.· Her son had been stabbed twice through the back with a carving knife, as he lay in his cot.· I see, you criticize my appearance, and then you stab me in the back!· And Pinochet-almost literally-stabbed him in the back.
· Sandra hid in undergrowth nearby as Robert was repeatedly stabbed in the chest and beaten by the gang.· He had been stabbed in the chest.· There was a scuffle and Murray was stabbed in the chest.· Twenty nine year old Donald Allison from Northampton had been stabbed in the chest and died later in hospital.· He was attacked and stabbed in the chest in the town centre, after playing rugby for the college team.
· He'd been stabbed to death.· In 1839 John Ridge Senior, a Cherokee, was stabbed to death before the eyes of his twelve-year-old son.· The two Leeds supporters were believed to have been stabbed to death after an argument with workmen.· The other man to die was Brian Roberson, 36, who stabbed to death an elderly couple in 1986.· Major's partner in crime was later stabbed to death during another raid.· Half a block away, a woman is raped and stabbed to death behind an abandoned church.· A month ago he went into Edinburgh for a night out and in the small hours was stabbed to death.· Student teacher is stabbed to death.
· I stab my finger in his eye.
· The new awareness of her love for him stabbed again at her heart.· But the extreme suffering of women and their children stabbed at my heart.· He was stabbed through the heart.· Meleager then rushed on the wounded creature and stabbed it to the heart.· Aphrodite belongs in the place of healing, for while love stabs the heart, passion heals.
· Read in studio Detectives have issued a description of the man who stabbed a student teacher to death in Cheltenham.· Hicks looked up and saw one man stab the other.· At first it was thought the men may have been stabbed with a broken pool cue.· That winter, a man was stabbed and left to die in a ditch north of town.· But the man stabbed himself to death.· The stabbings occurred just one night after two homeless men were stabbed several times while they slept only a few blocks away.· A religious pilgrimage ended with three men being stabbed in a gang fight on a beach.
· There was a scuffle in which Ian was stabbed through the neck.· He'd been stabbed in the neck during a party to celebrate his engagement.· She found the rabbit, chewing on a stubby cactus, and stabbed it in the neck.· Jennifer Grant, 25, was stabbed in the neck in a deserted alleyway near her home at Leyton, East London.· The teenager was stabbed in the neck on these steps in front of staff.· Read in studio A hospital worker is critically ill after being stabbed in the neck by a patient.· This member of the ducal family was stabbed in the neck on Boxing Day 1476.
· Their hands flew to their ears again, pain stabbing into eardrums.· Excruciating pain stabbed up into his groin.
· He had been stabbed through the throat.· Proving to be flame-proof when flung in the fire, Lucy was eventually stabbed in the throat.· He'd been stabbed in the throat.· She was then tortured and stabbed in the throat.· Shortly afterwards he is stabbed in the throat, the locus of his offence: those commanding, upper-class vowels.
· The 42-year-old priest had been stabbed 10 times in the neck, legs, back and lungs.· Allen slipped and fell and was stabbed three times in his left shoulder and once on top of his head.· The victim was confronted by a group of youths and stabbed four times as he walked home at Bletchley in Milton Keynes.· In 1989 David R.. Peterson killed a nine-year-old girl by stabbing her thirty-four times.· She had been stabbed several times.· Maria was stabbed seven-teen times and died that night.· He was punched and kicked to the ground and stabbed three times in the back.· Armstrong was recently stabbed several times by a neighbor in his Los Angeles apartment.
VERB· There are shooting, burning, stabbing, tearing, neuralgic pains.· The proboscis can be shot out forcibly, stabbing its prey.
PHRASES FROM THE ENTRY
1[transitive] to push a knife into someone or something: - He seems friendly, but he wouldn't hesitate to stab you in the back if he thought it would help him get your job.
- Thatcher was stabbed in the back by her former friends and colleagues in the Conservative Party.
- I see, you criticize my appearance, and then you stab me in the back!
- Some one reached through an open window and stabbed Bastidas in the back.
- Why stab Manchester in the back for helping to create a bigger northern network of clubs, raves and fashion outlets?
He was stabbed to death in a fight.stab somebody in the heart/arm etc She had been stabbed in the chest repeatedly.► see thesaurus at attack2[intransitive, transitive] to make quick pushing movements with your finger or something pointed SYN jab: He raised his voice and stabbed the air with his pen.3stab somebody in the back to do something that harms someone who likes and trusts you SYN betraystab1 verbstab2 noun
stabstab2 noun [countable] EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- Sims had multiple stab wounds to his chest and neck.
- Wood avoided goalie Kelly Hrudey's stab at the puck before scoring.
- For one incredible moment, Merrill knew a stab of envy of Elise.
- I knew the day and the month and made a stab at the year.
- Paltrow plays a spoiled young busybody who makes a disastrous stab at matchmaking.
- She managed to subdue the stab of jealousy that image brought.
- She stretched, and little stabs of pain shot through her.
- So that everybody can have a stab at it.
- There have been several other attempts with the Department of Defense that took a stab at a new vehicle.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY I’ll have one more stab at it.COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
I’ll have one more stab at it.· He was stabbed to death in an attack outside his home.
· Richard felt a pang of guilt, knowing that he had forgotten her birthday.
(=when someone is shot or stabbed)· Two men died today in a shooting incident.
(=a sudden feeling of jealousy)· Polly felt a sharp pang of jealousy when she saw Paul with Suzanne.
(=sharp and sudden)· Marcus heard a shot and felt a stabbing pain at the back of his ankle.
(=a small feeling of pity)· Charles even felt a twinge of pity for Mrs Sweet.
literary (=a sudden short feeling of regret)· Kate watched her go with a pang of regret.
· Her body was found with 37 stab wounds at her home in William Street.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSNOUN· The Tyrone man, a member of Belfast's gay community, died from multiple injuries and stab wounds.· Victim had multiple stab wounds and was partially burned.· Kelly, who was in her early 20s, was airlifted to hospital with multiple stab wounds but was dead on arrival.· Trauma centers more often are seeing bodies riddled by automatic-fire weapons or multiple stab wounds.· Another six Leeds fans were treated in hospital for injuries; two had serious stab wounds.· The medical examiner testified that one of the stab wounds was forceful enough to break Downing ribs.· A post-mortem examination showed he died from head injuries and stab wounds.· Eighteen stone Sian bravely fought for her life but collapsed with nine stab wounds in her back.
VERB· As Grant hurried down the narrow concrete stairs, he felt the first warning stab of pain in his torn thigh muscle.· I feel a stab of envy in spite of myself.· She felt a stab of resentment for the Church's claims on her precious holiday.· I felt a sharp stab of disappointment and was surprised and angry at myself.· I felt a stab of hatred for his captors.· Suddenly I sit bolt upright, feeling a familiar stab of panic that can mean only one thing: the videos!· She felt a stab of pity.
· The Tate has made four stabs at presenting its collection.· Paltrow plays a spoiled young busybody who makes a disastrous stab at matchmaking.· Next to him, Meredith made a feeble stab at joining in.· Mrs Witherspoon made a stab at following me, but she was too drunk to get very far.· Rigault made a stab at contacting Tu Duc, but the emperor spurned him.
· In the coming months, the project will take a stab at recommending solutions to the decline of the estuary.· There have been several other attempts with the Department of Defense that took a stab at a new vehicle.· AT&T took a stab at this kind of thing awhile back with Rhapsody based on Workhorse out of Dublin.· A few years earlier, the Sellers shops had taken some early stabs at the problem.· I take a stab, get up, showing how I can do the Kudakajima shuffle, even by myself.
PHRASES FROM THE ENTRY
1an act of stabbing or trying to stab someone with a knife: - As Grant hurried down the narrow concrete stairs, he felt the first warning stab of pain in his torn thigh muscle.
- I bit my arm and was grateful for the stab of pain, for the resistance of the bone beneath the skin.
- I felt a sharp stab of disappointment and was surprised and angry at myself.
- Instinctively he rolled in the saddle and felt the white-hot stab of pain as something sharp scored a line across his shoulders.
- She stretched, and little stabs of pain shot through her.
- Supposing, he thought, with a stab of fear, he was never going to have any friends?
- The policeman pinched his eyes as if overcome with a sudden stab of pain.
- A few years earlier, the Sellers shops had taken some early stabs at the problem.
- But the extreme suffering of women and their children stabbed at my heart.
- But there was an interesting sequel, which gave him his first, insightful, small stab at directing.
- But this last little stab at optimism soon comes to naught.
- He stabbed at it with his talons and beak.
- I knew the day and the month and made a stab at the year.
- Of course, she thought with a stab at realism, all this could apply to anyone.
- There have been several other attempts with the Department of Defense that took a stab at a new vehicle.
- I was stabbed in the back because I don't have those problems with Steve.
- It's so many stabs in the back ... It's the whole system which is tucking us up.
- MacQuillan had been stabbed in the back, there were no palm or fingerprints on the weapon.
- Nationalists supported the Wilson/Callaghan governments for years, only to be stabbed in the back in the end.
severe stab wounds a stab victim He killed him with a stab to the heart.2stab of pain/disappointment/fear etc a sudden sharp feeling of pain or a strong emotion: He felt a stab of guilt.3stab at (doing) something informal an attempt to do something, often not successfullyhave/make/take a stab at (doing) something I’ll have one more stab at it.4stab in the back when someone you thought was a friend tries to harm you