stint Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun an unbroken period of time during which you do something
    stretch.
    • there were stretches of boredom
    • he did a stretch in the federal penitentiary
  2. noun smallest American sandpiper
    Erolia minutilla; least sandpiper.
  3. noun an individual's prescribed share of work
    • her stint as a lifeguard exhausted her
  4. verb subsist on a meager allowance
    scrimp; skimp.
    • scratch and scrimp
  5. verb supply sparingly and with restricted quantities
    scant; skimp.
    • sting with the allowance

WordNet

Stint noun
Definitions
  1. (Zoöl.) (a) 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. (b) A phalarope.
Stint transitive verb
Etymology
OE. stinten, stenten, stunten, to cause to cease, AS. styntan (in comp.) to blunt, dull, fr. stunt dull, stupid; akin to Icel. stytta to shorten, stuttr short, dial, Sw. stynta to shorten, stunt short. Cf. Stent, Stunt.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Stinted; present participle & verbal noun Stinting
Definitions
  1. To restrain within certain limits; to bound; to confine; to restrain; to restrict to a scant allowance.
    I shall not go about to extenuate the latitude of the curse upon the earth, or stint it only to the production of weeds. Woodward.
    She stints them in their meals. Law.
  2. To put an end to; to stop. Obs. Shak.
  3. 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.
  4. To serve successfully; to get with foal; -- said of mares.
    The majority of maiden mares will become stinted while at work. J. H. Walsh.
Stint intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To stop; to cease. Archaic
    They can not stint till no thing be left. Chaucer.
    And stint thou too, I pray thee. Shak.
    The damsel stinted in her song. Sir W. Scott.
    2. to be parsimonious in expending some resource; -- used with "on" to indicate the item conserved. "Don't stint on the potatos!"
Stint noun
Etymology
Also written stent. See Stint, v. t.
Definitions
  1. Limit; bound; restraint; extent.
    God has wrote upon no created thing the utmost stint of his power. South.
  2. Quantity or task assigned; proportion allotted.
    His old stint -- three thousand pounds a year. Cowper.
    3. A period of work at a specific task; as, to do one's stint in the army, an actor who did a stint as a cab driver.

Webster 1913