Hi Anthony, To "take the sting out of" something just means to soften the information. For example, if I told you that I was having a problem understanding something in French and you said, "Dude! Don't worry about it! I've had the same problem learning something like that in English!" (Okay, so I used WAY too many apostrophes for that but you get the idea I hope!)

This statement is used when you are trying to lessen some bad news, something happened to make you forget about something bad, or you are looking for some good in a bad situation. For example, let's say you lost your wallet and you are really upset because you had $50 in the wallet but later on that day you find $100 or you win the lottery. When this happens you can say something like, "Wow, finding this $100 really took the sting out of losing my $50!" or "Winning the lottery really takes the sting out of losing my wallet!". I hope this helps:)

Take the sting out of means to make something less painful. His house burned down but he had good insurance which took the sting out of it.