stint

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /stɪnt/
• Rhymes: -ɪnt

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Middle English stinten, from Old English styntan (“to make blunt”) and *stintan (attested in āstintan (“to make dull, stint, assuage”)), from Proto-West Germanic *stuntijan, from Proto-Germanic *stuntijaną and Proto-Germanic *stintaną (“to make short”), probably influenced in some senses by cognate Old Norse *stynta, stytta (“to make short, shorten”).

Verb

stint (third-person singular simple present stints, present participle stinting, simple past and past participle stinted)

1. (archaic, intransitive) To stop (an action); cease, desist.
   • 15th c., “”, in Wakefield Mystery Plays; Re-edited in George England, Alfred W. Pollard, editors, The Towneley Plays (Early English Text Society Extra Series; LXXI), London: Oxford University Press, 1897, →OCLC, page 6, line 161:

     We mon haue payne that neuer shall stynt

     We deamons have pain that shall never cease

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     O do thy cruell wrath and spightfull wrong / At length allay, and stint thy stormy strife […]

   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     And stint thou too, I pray thee.

   • 1818 July 25, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], Tales of My Landlord, Second Series,  (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volumes (please specify |volume=I, II, III, or IV), Edinburgh: [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Company, →OCLC:

     The damsel stinted in her song.

2. (obsolete, intransitive) To stop speaking or talking (of a subject).
3. (intransitive) To be sparing or mean.

   Synonym: skimp

   The next party you throw, don't stint on the beer.

4. (transitive) To restrain within certain limits; to bound; to restrict to a scant allowance.
   • 1695, John Woodward, An Essay toward a Natural History of the Earth and Terrestrial Bodies:

     I shall not in the least go about to extenuate the Latitude of it: or to stint it only to the Produćtion of Weeds, of Thorns, Thisiles, and other the less useful Kinds of Plants

   • 1729, William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life:

     She stints them in their meals.

5. To assign a certain task to (a person), upon the performance of which he/she is excused from further labour for that day or period; to stent.
6. (of mares) To impregnate successfully; to get with foal.
   • 1861, John Henry Walsh, The Horse, in the Stable and the Field:

     The majority of maiden mares will become stinted while at work.

Derived terms

• unstinting

Translations

Noun

stint (plural stints)

1. A period of time spent doing or being something; a spell.

   He had a stint in jail.

   • 2012 May 13, Andrew Benson, “Williams's Pastor Maldonado takes landmark Spanish Grand Prix win”, in BBC Sport‎:

     That left Maldonado with a 6.2-second lead. Alonso closed in throughout their third stints, getting the gap down to 4.2secs before Maldonado stopped for the final time on lap 41.

   • 2020 May 20, “Network News: A legacy of greater diversity in transport”, in Rail, page 13:

     Lilian Greenwood has ranked boosting diversity and inclusivity among her crowning achievements from her two-year stint chairing the House of Commons Transport Select Committee.

2. Limit; bound; restraint; extent.
   • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, 6th edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: J Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer, , published 1727, →OCLC:

     God has wrote upon no created thing the utmost stint of his power.

3. Quantity or task assigned; proportion allotted.
   • 1782, William Cowper, “Retirement”, in Poems, London: J Johnson, , →OCLC, page 288:

     Jack bovv'd and vvas oblig'd—confeſs'd 'tvvas ſtrange / That ſo retir'd he ſhould not vviſh a change, / But knevv no medium betvveen guzzling beer, / And his old stint—three thouſand pounds a year.

Translations

Etymology 2

Origin unknown.

Noun

stint (plural stints)

1. Any of several very small wading birds in the genus Calidris. Types of sandpiper, such as the dunlin or the sanderling.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

Noun

stint (plural stints)

1. Misspelling of stent (medical device).

Anagrams

• 'tisn't, it'sn't, tints

Swedish

Adjective

stint

1. indefinite neuter singular of stinn

Adverb

stint (not comparable)

1. without moving one's gaze, intensely

   se någon stint i ögonen

   look someone right in the eye

References

• stint in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• stint in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• stint in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

Anagrams

• snitt