Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To be frugal or economical in providing something; hold back.
  • intransitive verb Archaic To stop or desist.
  • intransitive verb To restrict (someone) in what is provided or allowed.
  • intransitive verb To restrict (something supplied); be sparing with.
  • intransitive verb Archaic To cause to stop.
  • noun A length of time spent in a particular way, especially doing a job or fulfilling a duty.
  • noun A limitation or restriction.
  • noun Any of several small sandpipers of the genus Calidris, primarily of the Eastern Hemisphere.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To cause to cease; put an end to; stay; stop.
  • To bring to a stand; stay; put a stop to.
  • To forbear; cease.
  • To limit; restrain; restrict; hence, to limit or confine to a scanty allowance: as, to stint one's self in food; to stint service or help.
  • To assign a definite task to; prescribe a specified amount of labor for: as, to stint a pupil or a servant. See stint, n., 2.
  • To cover or serve (a mare) successfully; get with foal. See the quotation under stinted, 2.
  • To cease; desist; stay; stop; hold.
  • To be saving or careful in expenditure.
  • noun Limit; bound; limitation; restriction; restraint: as, common without stint (that is, without limitation or restriction as to the extent of the pasturage, the number of cattle to be pastured, or the period of the year).
  • noun Fixed amount or quantity; allowance; prescribed or allotted task or performance: as, a certain stint of work.
  • noun One of several small species of sandpiper, especially of the genus Actodromas; a sandpeep.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To restrain within certain limits; to bound; to confine; to restrain; to restrict to a scant allowance.
  • transitive verb obsolete To put an end to; to stop.
  • transitive verb To assign a certain (i. e., limited) task to (a person), upon the performance of which one is excused from further labor for the day or for a certain time; to stent.
  • transitive verb To serve successfully; to get with foal; -- said of mares.
  • intransitive verb Archaic To stop; to cease.
  • noun Any one of several species of small sandpipers, as the sanderling of Europe and America, the dunlin, the little stint of India (Tringa minuta), etc. Called also pume.
  • noun A phalarope.
  • noun Limit; bound; restraint; extent.
  • noun Quantity or task assigned; proportion allotted.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Common misspelling of stent (medical device).
  • noun A period of time spent doing or being something. A spell.
  • noun limit; bound; restraint; extent
  • noun Quantity or task assigned; proportion allotted.
  • verb archaic, intransitive To stop (an action); cease, desist.
  • verb obsolete, intransitive To stop speaking or talking (of a subject).
  • verb intransitive To be sparing or mean.
  • noun Any of several very small wading birds in the genus Calidris. Types of sandpiper, such as the dunlin or the sanderling.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an unbroken period of time during which you do something
  • verb supply sparingly and with restricted quantities
  • noun smallest American sandpiper
  • noun an individual's prescribed share of work
  • verb subsist on a meager allowance

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English stinten, to cease, from Old English styntan, to blunt.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English stint, from Old English.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English styntan ("make blunt"), probably influenced in some senses by cognate Old Norse *stynta.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Origin unknown.

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Examples

  • Persons in positions of authority don't seem to possess much more experience in education, never having taught or perhaps only going through a short-term stint that they knew was going to end from the start.

    Shaun Johnson: Are Parents a Privileged Class in Education? Shaun Johnson 2011

  • Persons in positions of authority don't seem to possess much more experience in education, never having taught or perhaps only going through a short-term stint that they knew was going to end from the start.

    Shaun Johnson: Are Parents a Privileged Class in Education? Shaun Johnson 2011

  • The last time I worked with Rick Sanchez, during a fill-in stint he did on American Morning, he stood next to my desk for a few minutes and groused about the way CNN covered news.

    Chez Pazienza: I, Sanchez Chez Pazienza 2010

  • Persons in positions of authority don't seem to possess much more experience in education, never having taught or perhaps only going through a short-term stint that they knew was going to end from the start.

    Shaun Johnson: Are Parents a Privileged Class in Education? Shaun Johnson 2011

  • The last time I worked with Rick Sanchez, during a fill-in stint he did on American Morning, he stood next to my desk for a few minutes and groused about the way CNN covered news.

    Chez Pazienza: I, Sanchez Chez Pazienza 2010

  • The last time I worked with Rick Sanchez, during a fill-in stint he did on American Morning, he stood next to my desk for a few minutes and groused about the way CNN covered news.

    Chez Pazienza: I, Sanchez Chez Pazienza 2010

  • The last time I worked with Rick Sanchez, during a fill-in stint he did on American Morning, he stood next to my desk for a few minutes and groused about the way CNN covered news.

    Chez Pazienza: I, Sanchez Chez Pazienza 2010

  • This guest posting stint is very strange: I am simply unused to the idea of reading so many positive comments about Matt Yglesias on this blog. shawn Says:

    Matthew Yglesias » Greetings 2009

  • The last time I worked with Rick Sanchez, during a fill-in stint he did on American Morning, he stood next to my desk for a few minutes and groused about the way CNN covered news.

    Chez Pazienza: I, Sanchez Chez Pazienza 2010

  • And the best of the grub was not good, while we went on stint from the start.

    GRIT OF WOMEN 2010

Comments

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  • It's a bird.

    September 17, 2013