stint

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /stɪnt/
• Rhymes: -ɪnt

Etymology 1

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

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^[1]:

     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.

2. Limit; bound; restraint; extent.
   • (Can we date this quote by South and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

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

3. Quantity or task assigned; proportion allotted.
   • (Can we date this quote by Cowper and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     His old stint — three thousand pounds a year.

Translations

a period of time spent doing or being something

• Finnish: jakso (fi), kausi (fi), aika (fi)
• Italian: gavetta (it) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: бы́тность (ru) f (býtnostʹ)

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.
   • 1460-1500, The Towneley Playsː

     We maun have pain that never shall stint.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.iii:

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

   • (Can we date this quote by Shakespeare and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     And stint thou too, I pray thee.

   • (Can we date this quote by Sir Walter Scott and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     The damsel stinted in her song.

2. (obsolete, intransitive) To stop speaking or talking (of a subject).
   • Late 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘The Franklin's Tale’, Canterbury Tales:

     Now wol I stynten of this Arveragus, / And speken I wole of Dorigen his wyf

3. (intransitive) To be sparing or mean.

   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.
   • (Can we date this quote by Woodward and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     I shall not go about to extenuate the latitude of the curse upon the earth, or stint it only to the production of weeds.

   • (Can we date this quote by Law and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     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.
   • (Can we date this quote by J. H. Walsh and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

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

Translations

to stop, cease, desist

• Finnish: lopettaa (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

to stop speaking or talking

• Finnish: vaieta (fi), lopettaa (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

to be sparing or mean

• Finnish: pihistellä (fi), pihtailla, nuukailla, säästää (fi)
• German: geizen (de)
• Maori: kaihākere, hākere
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: skąpić
• Russian: скупи́ться (ru) (skupítʹsja)
• Spanish: escatimar (es)

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.

Translations

wading bird of the genus Calidris

• Finnish: sirri (fi)
• German: Strandläufer m
• Romanian: fugaci (ro) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: песочник (ru) (pesočnik)
• Spanish: correlimos m

Etymology 3

Noun

stint (plural stints)

1. Misspelling of stent (medical device).

Anagrams

• 'tisn't, it'sn't, tints

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Westrobothnian

Etymology

Related to

Noun

1. A girl, i.e. an unmarried woman.