sting

informal

1. noun An undercover operation by law enforcement to gain evidence of criminal activity. In actuality, they were corresponding with FBI agents, and the sting led to dozens of arrests.

2. verb To force (someone) to pay a large amount of money, especially when that sum is surprising or seems unfair. The mechanic stung me for nearly $800 for various repairs when all I wanted him to do was change the oil. I was stung for a huge tax bill because of the money I won last summer.

sting (one) for (something)

To force one to pay a large amount of money, especially when that sum is surprising or seems unfair. The mechanic stung me for nearly $800 for various repairs when all I wanted him to do was change the oil. I was stung for a huge tax bill because of the money I won last summer.

sting (one) to the quick

To deeply emotionally hurt or offend one. The comments stung me to the quick, but I remained composed and carried on with the lecture.

sting (one) with (something)

1. Literally, to pierce one with some very small, sharp-pointed instrument or organ, especially as found on plants, insects, and sea life. Jellyfish are able to sting people with tiny harpoon-like structures along their tentacles called cnidocytes. When a honeybee stings you with its stinger, the barbed point becomes lodged in your skin, causing continued pain for you but death for the bee.

2. To present one with some charge, fine, or fee, especially one that is surprising or seems unfair. All the mechanic did was swap out a replacement part, but he stung me with an $800 repair bill. Just be aware that the airline will sting you with a hidden 10% administrative fee on top of all the other costs for your trip.

sting like the devil

To sting very intensely. A: "Will you please let me clean your cut with some antiseptic?" B: "No way! That stuff stings like the devil." Whew, that stung like the devil! Why on earth did I try to swat that bee with my hand?

stung to the quick

Deeply emotionally hurt or offended. I was stung to the quick to learn that they called my dress tacky behind my back. The hostess, stung to the quick by her guests' words, locked herself in the bedroom upstairs.

cut someone to the quick

and cut someone to the bone

1. Lit. to slice the flesh of someone or some animal clear through to the underlying layer of flesh or to the bone. With the very sharp knife, David cut the beast to the quick in one blow. He cut his finger to the quick with the sharp knife.

2. Fig. to injure someone emotionally. (See also cut something to the bone.) Your heartless comments cut me to the quick. Her remarks cut him to the bone.

cut to the quick

Deeply wound or distress, as in His criticism cut her to the quick. This phrase uses the quick in the sense of a vital or a very sensitive part of the body, such as under the fingernails. It also appeared in such older locutions as touched to the quick, for "deeply affected," and stung to the quick, for "wounded, distressed," both dating from the early 1500s. The current expression was considered a cliché from about 1850 on.

sting

1. tv. to cheat or swindle someone; to overcharge someone. That street merchant stung me, but good.

2. n. a well-planned scheme to entrap criminals. The sting came off without a hitch.

3. tv. to entrap and arrest someone. “We’ve been stung!” they hollered.

stung

mod. alcohol intoxicated. I’m a little stung by the mule, but I can find my way home if you’ll just remind me how to open this door.

cut to the quick

To be deeply wounded; to have one’s feelings hurt. The noun “quick” means the living, as well as the most vital and important part; today it also means the very sensitive flesh between the fingernails and skin. To be touched to the quick, meaning to be deeply affected, has been used since the sixteenth century; it appears in John Heywood’s Proverbs and in several places in Shakespeare’s plays (Hamlet, The Comedy of Errors, and others). Another version is stung to the quick, as in “The last appellation stung her to the quick” (Henry Fielding, Joseph Andrews, 1742). “Cut to the quick” is a still later wording and has been a cliché since about 1850. See also quick and the dead.