Forms: α. 4–6 stynt, (5 styntt), 5–6 stynte, (6 styntte), 5–7 stinte, 4– stint. β. 4– stent. [f. STINT v.
In certain senses this sb. seems to have coalesced with the etymologically unrelated STENT sb.1 Cf. the similar confusion noted under STINT v.]
I. The action of the verb STINT.
† 1. Cessation of action or motion, pause, stay. Phrase, to make a stint: to stop. Withouten stint, but stint (Sc.): without stopping, unceasingly. Obs.
α. a. 1300. Cursor M., 12977. Þat warlau him in armes hint, And bar him forth wit-vten stint.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 6815. Made þey neuere stynt ne stal Tyl þey come to þe Romayns wal.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, II. 140. And syne, for-owtyn langir stynt, The horss he sadylt hastely.
1430–40. Lydg., Bochas, VI. i. (1554), 144 b. Whan Fortune had said her wil … Made a stint, and sobrely stode still, Iohn Bochas sate & heard [etc.].
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, X. 286. Fra forgyt steyll the fyr flew out but stynt.
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., Epitome A ij. As of Trees,… Birdes, Beastes, yea and Men, there is a degree in growing, a stint or staying, and a diminishing.
1594. Marlowe, Dido, IV. ii. And I will … drop out both mine eyes in drisling teares, Before my sorrowes tide haue any stint.
1613. Jackson, Creed, I. 19. True Christian beliefe admits no stint of growth in this life, but still comes nearer and nearer to that euidencie of knowledge.
β. a. 1300. Cursor M., 17700. And bi þe hand þan he me hent, And forth me broght, wit-vten stent.
c. 1400. Sc. Trojan War, II. 578. After þe forme of sacrament Swore in old tyme wyt-outen stent.
† b. Hunting. A check or stop in the running of hounds owing to the loss of the scent; chiefly in the phrases to be on (a) stint, to fall upon stint. Obs.
c. 1400. Master of Game (MS. Digby 182), i. The other rennyth goynge aboute and then abideth, wherfore the houndes ben þe ofter on stint. Ibid., xxxiii. It were goode to assigne somme of þe horsemen amonge þe relayes to helpe þe more redely þe houndes, if þei falle vpon stynte. Ibid. If so be þat þe houndes haue enboysed, or be ouershete, or þat þe be on a stynte be any oþer wyse, what hunter … þat perceueth it first, shulde blowe þe stynte.
2. Limitation, restriction.
† a. with respect to mode of action. Obs.
1593. Nashe, Christ’s T., 47. Whereas God stinted him, what Trees and fruites he should eate on, and goe no further, hee [the Serpent] entist him to breake the bondes of that stint.
1610. Bp. Hall, Apol. Brownists, xxxvii. 93. If stinting our prayers be a fault … it is well that the Lords prayer it selfe beareth vs company…. To denie that it may be vsed intirely in our Sauiours wordes, is … a fanaticall curiousnesse: yeelde one and all; for if the matter be more diuine, yet the stint is no lesse faulty. Ibid. (1614), Contempl., II. VII. 318. It had beene as easie for the Angell to strike Balaam, as to stand in his way…: But euen the good Angels haue their stints, in their executions.
1633. Herbert, Temple, Praise (No. 3), iv. 152. Angels must have their joy, Devils their rod, the sea his shore, The windes their stint.
b. with reference to amount, quantity or degree. Without stint: with no fixed limit of amount, unstintedly.
In this phrase the sb. now tends to be interpreted in sense 2 c.
1651. Hobbes, Leviathan, I. xvi. 82. Every man … owning all the actions the Representer doth, in case they give him Authority without stint. Ibid. (1675), Odyss. (1677), 120. The gods do call it moly, And gather it, who have no stint of might.
1797. Burke, Regic. Peace, iii. Wks. 1808, VIII. 420. Its armies, its navies, are given to them without stint or restriction.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, VII. ii. Each poured forth his mind without stint.
1876. J. G. Holland, Seven Oaks, xix. His wife and children had money lavished on them without stint.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., II. II. xlvii. 212. But in all Congress may exercise without stint its power to override the statutes passed by a Territorial legislature.
c. Excessive restriction in the supply of anything, esp. of the necessaries or comforts of life; the condition of being kept scantily supplied.
1820. Scott, Fam. Lett., 26 July. It can never be my wish … that you should feel any stint.
1843. Lytton, Last Bar., I. v. Of furniture there was a woeful stint.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, I. ix. He … to whom life had hitherto had some of the stint and subjection of a school.
1882. Emma R. Pitman, Mission Life in Greece & Pal., 285. There was no need for stint where supplies were always at hand.
3. The putting a mare to the stallion. Cf. STINT v.
1764. Museum Rust., II. lxxix. 276. Inn-keepers, or jockeys, who can … by publishing a high premium for a stint, make the horse in their possession very famous.
II. Limited or fixed amount.
4. An allotted amount or measure; a prescribed or customary portion; an allowance. Now rare or Obs. (exc. as in b). Cf. sense 7.
α. c. 1485. Digby Myst. (1882), II. (Mary Magd.), 1807. I gyff yow be-syde yower styntt, Eche of yow a marke for yower wage.
1555. W. Watreman, Fardle Facions, I. vi. 84. Thei come to the Graues of their kyndreade, and there when they haue praied their stinte, laye them doune … to slepe.
1574. T. Newton, Health Mag., D iij. So that the thyng it self be neither ouercharged with to much, nor yet debarred from that stinte and sufficiencie that is needefull.
1570–6. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent, 125. Fiue and twentie were continually to watche and warde within the Castell for their seuerall stintes of time.
1620. Shelton, 2nd Pt. Don Quix., lix. 398. The Beasts hee carried to the Stable, and gaue them their stint.
a. 1623. Fletcher, Love’s Cure, II. i. Put me to a certain stint Sir, allow me but a red herring a day.
1633. Bp. Hall, Hard Texts, O. T., 15. I will therefore set him a stint of yeares, before his common destruction.
1663. Pepys, Diary, 24 Dec. I hope before I go I shall set myself such a stint as I may not forget myself.
1690. Dryden, Amphitryon, II. ii. Take back your sev’nty years, (the stint of Life).
1704. Swift, T. Tub, v. 122. Forty or fifty Pages of Preface and Dedication, (which is the usual Modern Stint).
1791. Cowper, Odyss., VIII. 477. Wisdom beyond the common stint I mark In this our guest.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, VIII. v. (Rtldg.), 287. There was … a scanty breakfast set out,… I never knew what it was to exceed this stint during the day.
β. 1447. Bokenham, Seyntys, Eliz. (Roxb.), 277. Thow she … Constreynyd wer to bedde yet in no degre Tyl hyr stent wer seruyd [sc. the omitted orisons were said] she ne wolde slepe.
b. One’s stint: an amount that one has resolved not to exceed.
1603–26. Breton, Poste Mad Lett. (Grosart), 9/1. For aparell, I will keepe my stint, and care for no fond fashion.
1683. H. Savile, Lett. 3 May, in M. Morrison, Catal. Autographs (1892), VI. 80. There I lost last night my twenty guinnyes, wch is my stint.
1732. Swift, Lett. to Gay, 4 May. My stint [of wine] in company is a pint at noon, and half as much at night.
1824. Miss Mitford, Village, I. 230. Three rubbers were our stint; and we were often game and game in the last before victory declared itself.
1846. Mrs. Gore, Eng. Char. (1852), 60. I can’t afford half-crowns every day. A shilling is my stint for such jobs.
† c. To live at stint: to live at a fixed rate of expenditure. Obs.
1681. Otway, Soldiers Fortune, IV. i. I do not enjoy my self with that freedom I wou’d do, there is no more pleasure in living at stint, then there is in living alone.
5. A measure, rate, gauge of amount, price, size, etc., fixed by authority. Chiefly in the phrases to set, etc., at one stint, to appoint, set a stint.
α. 1485. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 320. In case that hydes come to an heigher or a lougher price than they bene nowe, that then the Maire … shal sett the saide crafte att one stynte accordynge to rayson.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 168. The standard of the ounce was euer at one stynt, although the valuation of coynes altered.
a. 1600. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., VII. xxiii. § 11. Convenient it was to provide that there might be a moderate stint appointed to measure their expenses by.
1601. J. Wheeler, Treat. Comm., 57. There is a stint, and reasonable proportion allotted, and set … what quantite … euery man may ship out.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 137. But belike there is a limitation of the summe that is owed; for that if the summe … be aboue the stint, he shall not be released.
1715. N. Blundell, Diary (1895), 133. Severall Stints were set for the better Regulating the Affairs of the Parish.
1794. A. Young, Agric. Suffolk, 78. A child’s stint … for braiding nets … is four-pence a day.
β. 1606. Holland, Suetonius, 54. The number of Senatours growing still to a shameful and confused company … he reduced to the auncient stent [L. modum].
fig. 1534. More, Dial. agst. Trib., I. Wks. 1152/2. Both for release and reward, tempored after such rate as his … wysedome shal se conuenient for vs; wherof our blynde mortality can not here imagine nor deuyse the stynt. Ibid. (1534), Treat. Passion, Wks. 1290/2. God … limited of his owne wisedome and goodnes, after what rate and stynt, the commoditie therof shoulde be employed vppon vs.
† b. Usual or customary measure. Obs.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., II. 90. The Quicksilver will fall down to its wonted pitch and stint of 29. inches.
1733. Cheyne, Eng. Malady, III. iv. (1734), 354. My Appetite and Digestion return’d to their usual Stint towards my new Food.
1747. J. Relph, Misc. P., 121. The snow has left the fells and fled … And to their stint the becks are fawn.
6. The limited number of cattle, according to kind, allotted to each definite portion into which pasture or common land is divided, or to each person entitled to the right of common pasturage; also, the right of pasturage according to the fixed rate.
α. 1569. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford (1880), 327. Portemeade: Rate and Stynte of Cattell. Ibid. Stynt to be kept for Cattell in Portmead…. The Baillies … shall yerely oversee that every man shall kepe his stynt of beastes in Port meade.
1597. Pain Roll of Manor of Scawby, Lincs. (MS.). None within this Lordshippe shall keepe but for every Oxgange 40 sheepe … accordinge to the old Stinte, in paine of xs.
1687. in Croke’s Case of Otmoor (1831), 37. And if any take in joicement sheep, they shall not exceed the number of their stint in the townships.
1785. Woodmansey Inclosure Act, 2. Proprietors … enjoy common of pasture … by a certain determinate stint.
1844. Min. Evid. Sel. Comm. Commons’ Inclosure, 26. By a stint, I mean the right of pasturage for one animal, or for a certain number of animals, according to age, size, and capability of eating.
1869. Spectator, 17 April, 472/1. It was desirable to utilize … that portion of the soil of England which was lying unenclosed, and subject to all manner of rights of common, turbary, stints, and the like.
β. 1437. Dunfermline Reg. (Bannatyne Club), 285. The land liand betuix the estir oxgang and the orchard … [be] comon to bath the partis. Alsua bath þe partis sel kepe lauchful stent and noth excede.
1842. Q. Jrnl. Agric., XII. 52. In the oldest plantations, his young cattle were going to four times the stents the land had ever kept before it was so planted.
b. gen. Any kind of limitation of right of pasturage.
1766. Blackstone, Comm., II. iii. 34. All these species, of pasturable common, may be and usually are limited as to number and time; but there are also commons without stint, and which last all the year.
7. An allotted portion of work; a definite task. To work by stint (see quot. 1891).
α. a. 1530. Heywood, Weather (Brandl), 447. No water haue we to grynde at any stynt.
c. 1566. Merie Tales of Skelton, in Skelton’s Wks. (1843), I. p. lxvi. They wanted of their mele, and complained … that they could not make their stint of breade.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, xxiv. ¶ 15. The First [Press-man] takes his choice to Pull or Beat the agreed stint first.
1749. Berkeley, in Fraser, Life, viii. (1871), 320. Their stint, on account of health, is an hour and half a day for painting.
1803. T. Netherton, in Naval Chron., XV. 314. The Caulkers … are employed by stint on new work.
1866. Carlyle, Remin. (1881), I. 285. Here … I … took to doing ‘German Romance’ as my daily work, ‘ten pages daily’ my stint.
1891. Labour Commission, Gloss. s.v., If a man is engaged to work for eight hours, and a certain quantity of work given him to perform in that time, he is said to be working by stint.
1904. Kipling, Traffics & Discov., 369. They were letting in the water for the evening stint at Robert’s Mill.
β. 1773. R. Fergusson, Farmer’s Ingle, ix. Yet frae the russet lap the spindle plays Her e’ening stent reels she as weel’s the lave.
1789. Ross, Helenere, I. (ed. 3), 49. Their stent [1768 task] was mair than they cou’d well mak out.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, III. 754. On shifting the workers from one stent to another.
1887. Kentish Gloss., Stent, a word used by the oyster dredgers in North Kent, to denote that amount or number of oysters, fixed by the rules of their association, which they may dredge in one day.
1898. E. P. Evans, Evol. Ethics, v. 176. Spinoza had to secure his subsistence by grinding his stent of lenses before he could gratify his love of philosophy.
b. Mining. (See quots.)
α. 1850. Ogilvie, Stint.… In coal mines, a measure of work two yards long by one broad, which each miner clears before he removes to another place.
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, Stint. 1. (Midland.) A measure of length by which colliers hole and cut coal…. 2. (Gloucestershire.) A certain number of trams filled per man per day. 3. (South Staffordshire.) A collier’s day’s work.
1888. Daily News, 5 Oct., 2/5. The minimum wages was fixed at 3s. 4d. per day or stint for thick-coal men and thin-coal in proportion.
β. 1864. Daily Tel., 26 Oct., 3/2. What is termed a day does not represent a day’s work of a given number of hours, but a certain cubical quantity of coal known as a ‘stent.’
† c. As advb. accusative: In fulfilment of an appointed task. Obs.
1618. R. Bolton, Florus, II. vi. (1636), 98. That most dangerous Captaine having … markt … where … the Easterne winde blew stint as it were [L. quasi ad constitutum].
8. Prescribed, destined or customary limit.
† a. of spatial extension or progress. Also, destination or goal of a journey. Obs.
α. 1601. Holland, Pliny, V. ix. I. 98. The ordinarie heighth of it is sixteene cubites. Vnder that gage the waters overflow not all. Above that stint, they are a let and hinderance.
1618. Ralegh, Rem. (1644), 114. You are now imbarked in your final voyage, and not far from the stint and period of your course.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., II. xiii. § 5. This Power of repeating, or doubling any Idea we have of any distance,… without being ever able to come to any stop or stint.
β. 1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys, 18. If thou be dampned, than art thou at thy stent.
1563. Sackville, Induct. Mirr. Mag., vi. Erythius that in the cart fyrste went Had euen nowe attaynde his iourneyes stent.
† b. of duration. Obs.
1587. T. Hughes, Misfort. Arthur, I. ii. 75. Fron. How can you then attempt a fresh offence? Guen. Who can appoint a stint to her offence?
1596. Spenser, Astrophel, Mourn. Thestylis, 51. No humble speech nor mone, may moue the fixed stint Of destinie or death.
1620. Quarles, Feast for Worms, viii. G 4 b. The stint of Niniuey was forty dayes, To cry for grace, and turne from euill wayes.
1633. Bp. Hall, Hard Texts, O. T., 144. God keeps the stint of their life secret from them.
a. 1659. Bp. Brownrig, Serm. (1674), I. iv. 62. Satan set a stint to Job’s suffering.
1693. Evelyn, De La Quint. Compl. Gard., Refl. Agric., 68. Every Plant has a peculiar, determinate, certain, and infallible Stint or Term, for the Beginning and Duration of its Action.
† c. of expansion or increase. Obs.
1598–1603. Stow, Surv. (1908), II. 205. The number of the Citizens … farre exceedeth proportion of Hippodamus, which appoynted 10000. and of others which haue set downe other numbers, as meete stintes in theyr opinions to bee well gouerned.
1606. Bryskett, Civil Life, 192. For that mans desires had their determinate stint, wheras Alexanders increased stil, the more he enlarged his dominions.
1645. Milton, Colast., 12. A man … puft up with no luck at all, above the stint of his capacity.
1729. Butler, Serm., Wks. 1874, II. 140. Every one of our passions and affections hath its natural stint and bound.
9. (See quot.)
1792. G. Cartwright, Jrnl. Labrador, I. Gloss. p. xv. Stint, the dam made by beavers across a stream, to raise the water to a height convenient for their purpose.
10. attrib. and Comb., as stint allowance; stint-holder, a holder of a stint of pasture; stint-holer Mining (see quot.); † stint-key (? nonce-wd.), a key that checks the supply (of ale); in quot. fig.
a. 1814. Sailors’ Ret., I. vii. in New Brit. Theatre, II. 328. British sailors shall find there’s no *stint allowance at Growl-Hall.
1894. Carlisle Patriot, 4 May, 3/7. (Cumbld. Gloss.). The annual meeting of *stintholders … was held at the Wheatsheaf Inn.
1891. Labour Commission, Gloss., *Stintholer, the man who undercuts the coal by ‘piece.’
1827. C. Webbe, Harvest-Home, iv. And the quaint and jocund tale Takes the *stint-key from the ale.
