To pierce with a pointed weapon; to wound or kill by the thrust of a pointed instrument; as, to stab a man with a dagger; also, to thrust; as, to stab a dagger into a person
You can refer to a sudden, usually unpleasant feeling as a stab of that feeling. a stab of pain just above his eye She felt a stab of pity for him
If you say that someone has stabbed you in the back, you mean that they have done something very harmful to you when you thought that you could trust them. You can refer to an action of this kind as a stab in the back. She felt betrayed, as though her daughter had stabbed her in the back
If you stab something or stab at it, you push at it with your finger or with something pointed that you are holding. Bess stabbed a slice of cucumber Goldstone flipped through the pages and stabbed his thumb at the paragraph he was looking for He stabbed at the omelette with his fork
a sudden sharp feeling; "pangs of regret"; "she felt a stab of excitement"; "twinges of conscience"