stab
n. countablen. an attempt to do something, especially when you are not sure if you will succeed. You use this when you are trying something for the first time.
n. an attempt or try at a particular task or activity. Informal in register; often used when the outcome is uncertain or the effort is experimental.
I decided to take a stab at fixing the sink myself.
Even though she had never painted before, she took a stab at a landscape during the weekend workshop.
While the initial stab at market expansion yielded only modest results, the data gathered proved invaluable for the company's subsequent and more successful strategy.
First attested in Scottish English (compare Scots stob, stobbe, stabb (“a pointed stick or stake; a thrust with a pointed weapon”)), from Middle English stabbe (“a stab”), probably a variant of Middle English stob, stub, stubbe (“pointed stick, stake, thorn, stub, stump”), from Old Norse stobbi, stubbi, cognate with Old English stybb. Cognate with Middle Dutch stobbe. Supposed by some to derive from Scottish Gaelic stob (“to prick, to prod, to push, to thrust”); supposed by others to be from a Scots word.
Clipping of stabilizer or stabiliser.
Commonly used in the idiomatic phrase 'take a stab at' followed by a gerund or a noun phrase.
take a stab to fixtake a stab at fixingThe noun 'stab' in this sense is followed by the preposition 'at' and a gerund, not an infinitive.