Sting

Sting - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

STING, v.t. pret. and pp. stung. Stang is obsolete. [G., to stick, to sting. We see that sting, is stick altered in orthography and pronunciation.]

1. To pierce with the sharp pointed instrument with which certain animals are furnished, such as bees, wasps, scorpions and the like. Bees will seldom sting persons, unless they are first provoked.

2. To pain acutely; as, the conscience is stung with remorse.

Slander stings the brave.

STING, n.

1. A sharp pointed weapon or instrument which certain animals are armed by nature for their defense, and which they thrust from the hinder part of the body to pierce any animal that annoys or provokes them. In most instances, this instrument is a tube, through which a poisonous matter is discharged, which inflames the flesh, and in some instances proves fatal to life.

2. The thrust of a sting into the flesh. The sting of most insects produces acute pain.

3. Any thing that gives acute pain. Thus we speak of the stings of remorse; the stings of reproach.

4. The point in the last verse; as the sting of an epigram.

5. That which gives the principal pain, or constitutes the principal terror.

The sting of death is sin. 1 Cor 15.

sting (parash, "to cut into"; kentron, "a goad," "spur"): A sharp, pointed organ or instrument for inflicting wounds by puncture; sting of an adder, Pr 23:32; of scorpions, Re 9:10. In the free quotation of 1Co 15:55 from Ho 13:14, death is personified as a deadly animal, like a scorpion or serpent, which inflicts destruction by means of sin as its kentron. It should also be remembered that in Ac 26:14 the same Greek word is used with reference to an instrument for exciting fear, rather than death. Both figures are pertinent; for death is powerless, except through sin, and, also, when sin is vanquished, the fear of death (Heb 2:15) is gone.

H. E. Jacobs