Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - stab

(stabs, stabbing, stabbed) 1. If someone stabs you, they push a knife or sharp object into your body. Somebody stabbed him in the stomach... Stephen was stabbed to death in an unprovoked attack nearly five months ago. VERB: V n, V to n 2. If you stab something or stab at it, you push at it with your finger or with something pointed that you are holding. Bess stabbed a slice of cucumber... Goldstone flipped through the pages and stabbed his thumb at the paragraph he was looking for... He stabbed at the omelette with his fork. VERB: V n, V n at n, V at n 3. If you have a stab at something, you try to do it. (INFORMAL) Several tennis stars have had a stab at acting. N-SING: a N at n/-ing 4. You can refer to a sudden, usually unpleasant feeling as a stab of that feeling. (LITERARY) ...a stab of pain just above his eye... She felt a stab of pity for him. N-SING: a N of n 5. If you say that someone has stabbed you in the back, you mean that they have done something very harmful to you when you thought that you could trust them. You can refer to an action of this kind as a stab in the back. She felt betrayed, as though her daughter had stabbed her in the back... PHRASE: V inflects 6. a stab in the dark: see dark