stinging

From Middle English styngyng; equivalent to sting +‎ -ing.

stinging (comparative more stinging, superlative most stinging)

Having the capacity to sting.
stinging nettles
(figurative) Precise and hurtful.
- 2017 September 27, David Browne, “Hugh Hefner, 'Playboy' Founder, Dead at 91”, in Rolling Stone:
  That same year, a young Gloria Steinem went undercover as a Playboy Bunny at one of his Playboy Clubs and wrote a stinging inside critique of the magazine's ethos and chauvinism in an article, titled "A Bunny's Tale," which was published in Show magazine.

stinging

present participle and gerund of sting
- 1892, James Yoxall, chapter 5, in The Lonely Pyramid:
  The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. […] Drifts of yellow vapour, fiery, parching, stinging, filled the air.

stinging (plural stingings)

The act by which someone receives a sting.
the stingings of scorpions

stingings of remorse

English