English

Adjective

stabby ‎(comparative stabbier, superlative stabbiest)

1. having one or more sharp points
   • 1935, The American Legion Monthly, Volume 19, page 54:

     At any rate there flourished by the curbing, sure enough, a wide and very stabby cactus garden, extending Tartar hospitality.

   • 1971, Jill Johnston, Marmalade Me, Dutton (1971), page 298:

     The crowd hates the picadors who deprive the bull of its first energy to fight. The picador is fat. He's got a long pole with a stabby thing on the end. His horse is blinded in cloth. His horse is old on its last legs.

   • 2010, Zoe Whittall, Holding Still for as Long as Possible, House of Anansi Press Inc (2010), ISBN 9780887849640, page 108:

     Roxy was knitting tiny finger-puppet monsters. The Gem was peppered with balls of wool and potentially stabby knitting needles.

2. (of movement) quick and thrusting
   • 1921, Francis Hackett, The Invisible Censor, B. W. Huebsch, Inc (1921):

     By means of a clever arrangement of springs down below that responded to an electric current, the whole mechanism was able to move up and down and backward and forward in short stabby jerks that were supposed to stir up your gizzard in practically the same way as the motion of a horse.

   • 1968, Seymour Krim, Views of a Nearsighted Cannoneer, Dutton (1968), page 44:

     Because they would be coming any minute now, any second, actually, and the only warning he would get would be the sound of the opening of the outside door and then two pairs of footsteps in the hall, the one sharp and stabby and the other flat, flat as the palm of your hand […]

   • 1991, "Walker, Holton Are A Winning Duo", South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 18 September 1991:

     Neither possesses a serve fast enough to dent a radar gun and their stabby backhands resemble karate chops.

3. (of a feeling) coming on suddenly and acutely felt
   • 1933, Irvin S. Cobb, One Way Stop to a Panic, R. M. McBride & Company (1933), page 250:

     She saw a young couple go past, embarrassed and blushing under showers of rice and riotously convoyed by what clearly was an East Side bridal party. This she saw with a quick darting pang — not a pang of envy exactly, nor yet of jealousy; just a sharp, stabby, little sort of pang, that's all.

   • 1971, Moritz Thomsen, Living Poor: A Peace Corps Chronicle, University of Washington Press (1969), page 26:

     I began to develop stabby feelings of guilt. I couldn't speak enough Spanish to compete with the extension people in the office, and I spent most of my time reading old Time magazines. I would think about that eleven cents an hour that I was getting and feel like a real thief.

   • 2003, Bruce Wagner, Still Holding, Simon & Schuster (2003), ISBN 0743243374, page 265:

     "I feel bad for her!" said Kit, earnestly. Winced and shifted some more—stabby nerve-ending pain out of nowhere, per usual. Pressure in the temples. He could deal but hoped his eye didn't start to twitch; hated that.

4. (of sound) staccato
   • 1999, "Mandorico turns from ska to Latin rock", Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 20 August 1999:

     The guitar player is playing kind of melodic licks, and the horns are stabby, accent parts.

   • 2006, Kory Grow, review of Ratatat's album Classics, CMJ New Music Monthly, August 2006:

     **** yeah, Zelda kicks ass! Ratatat re-up with their second set of '80s video game-worthy instrumentals, full of stabby guitars and disco-y synths.

   • 2009, Travis Elborough, The Vinyl Countdown: The Album from LP to IPod and Back Again, Counterpoint Press (2009), ISBN 9781593762377, page 279:

     Going solo in 1970, Mayfield's eponymous debut LP featured 'Move On Up', a hit single whose stabby violins and clattering percussion helped to define the palate of funky, seventies soul […]

5. (of a look) penetrating and hostile
   • 1917, Sewell Ford, Wilt Thou Torchy, Grosset & Dunlap (1917), Chapter VIII:

     Her eyes are the stabby kind, worse than long hatpins. Honest, after one glance I felt like I was bein' held up on a fork.

   • 1918, Sewell Ford, The House of Torchy, Grosset & Dunlap (1918), Chapter VII, page 98:

     Then I catches the eye of the stiff-necked dame with the straight nose and the gun-metal hair. No, both eyes, it was; and a cold, suspicious, stabby look is what they shoots my way.

   • 1974, Pamela Rogers, The Rare One, T. Nelson (1974), page 54:

     Toby glittered the tears into hard, stabby looks at his father and Ma.

6. (slang) acting in a violent and/or deranged manner
   • 1997, Lynda Barry, Cruddy: An Illustrated Novel, Simon & Schuster (1999), ISBN 9780684838465, page 21:

     If I show the evidence of expanding, she looks at me like she will pop me with her Alfred Hitchcock knife. Is all of this just my expanded imagination? OR WILL YOU FINALLY BELIEVE THE WARNING I AM SAYING ABOUT THE MOTHER. THAT SHE IS GETTING FREAKY IN A STABBY WAY.

   • 2007, Will Tuttle, "Call of Duty 4 Multiplayer Beta: Editor Impressions", Team XBox, 23 August 2007:

     I love it, as it allows me to sprint after an opponent, then stab them in the back when I get close. I gotta say, there are few things more satisfying in this game than cutting a foes throat or burying your blade in their chest. I don't get mad, I get stabby!

   • 2009, David Kyle Johnson, Heroes and Philosophy: Buy the Book, Save the World, John Wiley and Sons (2009), ISBN 9780470373385, page 191:

     Forgetful Hiro can remember everything up to being ten, but nothing since then, including stabbing Sylar at the end of Volume 1. But, of course, "Stabby Hiro" can remember being ten as well. So Forgetful Hiro can remember Ten-Year-Old Hiro, and so can Stabby Hiro, but Forgetful Hiro can't remember Stabby Hiro.

7. (slang, by analogy) angry or irritated
   • 2001 March 18, "GROGtheNailer", “Re: HH2002: ReAd ThIs 3dO !!!”, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.sports, Usenet:

     This fool is starting to make me feel stabby. Coming back to one of his threads is like a scab you want to pick but you just know it will get infected, yet you feel oddly compelled to see just how much of a fool he has made of himself.

   • 2003, "NemeLynx", Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc review, XBoxAddict.com, 18 March 2003:

     Some of the tasks can be a little difficult, and thus enjoyable, but all in all they left me feeling depressed and stabby (when you feel like stabbing someone).

   • 2008, Jess McGuire, "Nice Work, The Age!", Defamer Australia, 20 November 2008:

     (And now that I’ve done this, you’ll suddenly begin noticing – if you haven’t already – my evil molesting of grammar and inappropriate use of punctuation, and feel totally stabby whenever I make a really obvious mistake. But I’m not a real journalist! I’m just a small town girl, living in a lonely world!)

   • 2009, Mary Elizabeth Williams, "Death to Smiley", Salon, 30 November 2009:

     Letters and punctuation are nothing but code for our thoughts and ideas. Why then do I feel all stabby when I get a message that ends with three short marks: a colon, a hyphen and a parenthesis?

   • 2010, Yukon Jack, "Back to the Daily Grind", Edmonton Sun, 9 January 2010:

     The alarm clock stung a bit more today. The lineup at the coffee drivethru was longer. You felt a little bit more stabby in the gridlocked traffic.

   • 2010, Joe Rybicki, "Music games need to refocus, not reboot", Computer World, 29 January 2010:

     Publishers, if you're not introducing significant new gameplay features, you shouldn't pretend to be releasing a brand-new game. It makes gamers stabby.

   • 2010, Kelsey Wallace, "Rape: Still not an 'official crime,' still making us stabby", Bitch Magazine, 12 April 2010:

     In the 2007 article, "From the 'Things that make us stabby' files," Bitch editor/creative director Andi Zeisler briefly describes a Howard University student's thwarted attempts at getting a rape kit after visiting two different hospitals (Howard University and George Washington) and getting the D.C. police involved.

   • 2010, CJ Lambert, "The Pope, Pedobear and Twitter", 3 News, 20 September 2010:

     "The Pope Speaks Out Against Atheism", reported a couple of stabby blog links.

     Shock horror! Next thing you'll be telling me that the Pope believes in God. Disgusting behaviour for a religious leader/world leader person (except when the Dalai Llama says it because he's cute like Yoda).