Stint

How to spell stint

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce stint

What does stint mean?

1. nounA fixed or allotted period spent doing a particular job or activity.
2. verbTo restrict or be sparing in the amount of something one gives or spends.

Stint in a sentence

• noun

  She did a two-year stint as a sub-editor before moving abroad.

• verb

  The caterers did not stint on the portions at the wedding.

• noun

  His stint on the night shift left him exhausted by Friday.

• verb

  He refused to stint on the materials for the new roof.

Where does stint come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Stint goes back to the Old English verb styntan, which literally meant 'to make blunt or dull' and, by extension, 'to shorten or hold back'. Over the Middle Ages the sense narrowed from blunting an edge to checking or restraining something, so that to stint came to mean to cut short or to be sparing with a supply. From this restrictive verb grew a noun meaning a limitation, and then a fixed or allotted amount of work, which is how we now speak of doing a stint at a job. The word is a close relative of 'stunt', which shares the same Germanic root for cutting short or arresting growth. Because it is a short, blunt-sounding word with no silent letters, the spelling stays close to its old form and rarely strays.

How the word is built

• stint (from Old English styntan: to blunt, shorten, hold back)