English

Alternative forms

• stund
• stoind, stoond, stoon, stoun, stuind (Scotland)

Noun

stound ‎(plural stounds)

1. (chronology, obsolete or dialectal) An hour.
   • 1765, Percy's Reliques, The King and the Tanner of Tamworth (original license: 1564):

     What booth wilt thou have? our king reply'd / Now tell me in this stound

   • 1987, Alastair Mackie, Ingaidherins: Selected Poems - Page 54:

     Will Ardnamurchan never end? We're four stounds in a metal box [...]

2. (obsolete) A tide, season.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Chaucer to this entry?)

3. (archaic or dialectal) A time, length of time, hour, while.
   • 1801, Walter Scott, The Talisman:

     He lay and slept, and swet a stound, / And became whole and sound.

4. (archaic or dialectal) A brief span of time, moment, instant.

   Listen to me a little stound.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Chaucer to this entry?)

5. A moment or instance of urgency; exigence.
6. (dialectal) A sharp or sudden pain; a shock, an attack.
   • 1857, Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture:

     No wonder that they cried unto the Lord, and felt a stound of despair shake their courage

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.viii:

     ere the point arriued, where it ought, / That seuen-fold shield, which he from Guyon brought / He cast betwene to ward the bitter stound [...].

7. A stroke or blow (from a object or weapon); (by extension) a lashing; scourging
   • 1807, Sir Egerton Brydges, Censura Literaria:

     How many pipes, as many sounds Do still impart To your Sonne's hart / As many deadly wounds : How many strokes, as many stounds, Each stroke a dart, Each stound a smart, Poore captive me confounds.

   • 1843, Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, Proceedings of the Court of Inquiry appointed to inquire into the intended mutiny on board the United States Brig of War Somers, on the high seas:

     A colt is made of three stounds, I think; it is lighter, much, than the cat. The punishment with the colt is always given without stripping, over the clothes.

8. A fit, an episode or sudden outburst of emotion; a rush.
   • 1893, The Homoeopathic World:

     Several stounds of pain in the cleft between great and second toe (anterior tibial nerve). I forget which side, but I think it was the right. Slight pains in left temple, > pressure. Pain in upper part of right eyeball.

   • 1895, Mansie Wauch, The Life of Mansie Wauch: tailor in Dalkeith:

     [...] and run away with him, almost whether he will or not, in a stound of unbearable love!

9. Astonishment; amazement

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Gay to this entry?)

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

stound ‎(third-person singular simple present stounds, present participle stounding, simple past and past participle stounded)

1. (obsolete or dialectal, intransitive) To hurt, pain, smart.
   • 1819, John Keats, Otho the Great, Act IV, Scene II, verses 93-95

     Your wrath, weak boy ? Tremble at mine unless

     Retraction follow close upon the heels

     Of that late stounding insult […]

2. (obsolete or dialectal, intransitive) To be in pain or sorrow, mourn.
3. (obsolete or dialectal, intransitive) To long or pine after, desire.
   • 1823, Edward Moor, Suffolk words and phrases: or, An attempt to collect the lingual localisms of that county:

     Recently weaned children "stound after the breast."

Etymology 2

From Middle English stunden ‎(“to linger, stay, remain for a while”). Cognate with Icelandic stunda ‎(“to frequent, pursue”). More at stand.

Verb

stound ‎(third-person singular simple present stounds, present participle stounding, simple past and past participle stounded)

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To stand still; stop.
2. (intransitive, Britain dialectal) To stop to listen; pause.

Noun

stound ‎(plural stounds)

1. (Britain dialectal) A stand; a stop.

Etymology 3

Middle English stound, stonde, stoonde, ston, from Old English stond ‎(“a stand”). Compare stand.

Noun

stound ‎(plural stounds)

1. A receptacle for holding small beer.

Anagrams

• donuts
• stunod