stickle

stickle

See also: Stickle

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈstɪk(ə)l/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪkəl

Etymology 1

From Middle English *stikel, *stykyl (in compounds), from Old English sticel (“a prickle, sting, goad”), from Proto-Germanic *stiklaz, *stikilaz (“sting, stinger, peak, cup, goblet”), related to the verb *stikaną (“to stick”).

Noun

stickle (plural stickles)

1. A sharp point; prickle; a spine

Derived terms

• stickleback
• stickly

Etymology 2

From Middle English stikel, from Old English sticel, sticol (“high, lofty, steep, reaching great heights, inaccessible”), from Proto-Germanic *stikulaz, *stikkulaz (“high, steep”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to stick; peak”).

Adjective

stickle (comparative more stickle, superlative most stickle)

1. steep; high; inaccessible
2. (UK, dialect) high, as the water of a river; swollen; sweeping; rapid

Noun

stickle (plural stickles) (Britain, dialectal)

1. A shallow rapid in a river.
2. The current below a waterfall.
   • 1616, William Browne, “The Fourth Song”, in Britannia’s Pastorals. The Second Booke, London: […] Iohn Haviland, published 1625, OCLC 15621415, page 143:

     [P]atient Anglers ſtanding all the day / Neere to ſome ſhallovv ſtickle or deepe bay.

Etymology 3

From a variant of stightle (“to order, arrange, direct”), from Middle English stightelen, stiȝtlen, stihilen, stihlen, equivalent to stight (“to order, rule, govern”) +‎ -le (frequentative suffix).

Verb

stickle (third-person singular simple present stickles, present participle stickling, simple past and past participle stickled)

1. (obsolete) To act as referee or arbiter; to mediate.
2. (now rare) To argue or struggle for.
   • 1897, Henry James, What Maisie Knew

     ‘She has other people than poor little you to think about, and has gone abroad with them; so you needn’t be in the least afraid she’ll stickle this time for her rights.’

3. To raise objections; to argue stubbornly, especially over minor or trivial matters.
   • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, OCLC 1026761782, (please specify the book or page number):

     Miserable new Berline! Why could not Royalty go in some old Berline similar to that of other men? Flying for life, one does not stickle about his vehicle.

4. (transitive, obsolete) To separate, as combatants; hence, to quiet, to appease, as disputants.
   • 1630, Michael Drayton, The Muses' Elizium

     Which [question] violently they pursue, / Nor stickled would they be.

5. (transitive, obsolete) To intervene in; to stop, or put an end to, by intervening.
   • c. 1580 (date written)​, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “[The First Booke] Chapter 1”, in Fulke Greville, Matthew Gwinne, and John Florio, editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, OCLC 801077108; republished in Albert Feuillerat, editor, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia (Cambridge English Classics: The Complete Works of Sir Philip Sidney; I), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1912, OCLC 318419127, page 9:

     They ran to him, and, pulling him back by force, stickled that unnatural fray.

6. (intransitive, obsolete) To separate combatants by intervening.
   • 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis; John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson […], OCLC 80026745:

     When he [the angel] sees half of the Christians are already killed, and all the rest in a fair way to be routed, [he]stickles betwixt the remainders of God’s host, and the race of fiends.

7. (intransitive, obsolete) To contend, contest, or altercate, especially in a pertinacious manner on insufficient grounds.
   • 1662, [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905, OCLC 963614346:

     Fortune, as she’s wont, turned fickle, / And for the foe began to stickle.

   • 1684, John Dryden, To The Disappointment

     for paltry punk they roar and stickle

   • c. 1817, William Hazlitt, Character of John Bull

     the obstinacy with which he stickles for the wrong

Derived terms

• stickler

Further reading

• stickle in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• stickle in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
• stickle at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Stickel, Tickles, icklest, lickest, tickles