Part 795

The obstinacy with which he stickles for the wrong.

Hazlitt.

3. To play fast and loose; to pass from one side to the other; to trim.

Stic"kle, v. t. 1. To separate, as combatants; hence, to quiet, to appease, as disputants. [Obs.]

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

Drayton.

2. To intervene in; to stop, or put an end to, by intervening; hence, to arbitrate. [Obs.]

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

Sir P. Sidney.

Stic"kle, n. [Cf. stick, v. t. & i.] A shallow rapid in a river; also, the current below a waterfall. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.]

Patient anglers, standing all the day Near to some shallow stickle or deep bay.

W. Browne.

Stic"kle*back` (?), n. [OE. & Prov E. stickle a prickle, spine, sting (AS. sticel) + back. See Stick, v. t., and cf. Banstickle.] (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of small fishes of the genus Gasterosteus and allied genera. The back is armed with two or more sharp spines. They inhabit both salt and brackish water, and construct curious nests. Called also sticklebag, sharpling, and prickleback.

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Stic"kler (stk"klr), n. [See Stickle, v. t.] One who stickles. Specifically: --

(a) One who arbitrates a duel; a sidesman to a fencer; a second; an umpire. [Obs.]

Basilius, the judge, appointed sticklers and trumpets whom the others should obey.

Sir P. Sidney.

Our former chiefs, like sticklers of the war, First sought to inflame the parties, then to poise.

Dryden.

(b) One who pertinaciously contends for some trifling things, as a point of etiquette; an unreasonable, obstinate contender; as, a stickler for ceremony.

The Tory or High-church were the greatest sticklers against the exorbitant proceedings of King James II.

Swift.

Stick"-seed` (?), n. (Bot.) A plant (Echinospermum Lappula) of the Borage family, with small blue flowers and prickly nutlets.

Stick"tail` (?), n. The ruddy duck. [Local, U.S.]

Stick"-tight` (?), n. (Bot.) Beggar's ticks.

Stick"y (?), a. [Compar. Stickier (?); superl. Stickiest.] Having the quality of sticking to a surface; adhesive; gluey; viscous; viscid; glutinous; tenacious.

Herbs which last longest are those of strong smell, and with a sticky stalk.