Stickle

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈstɪk(É™)l/
• Rhymes: -ɪkÉ™l

Origin

Variant of stightle.

Full definition of stickle

Verb

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.
4. (transitive, obsolete) To separate, as combatants; hence, to quiet, to appease, as disputants.
• DraytonWhich question violently they pursue,
  Nor stickled would they be.
5. (transitive, obsolete) To intervene in; to stop, or put an end to, by intervening.
• Sir Philip SidneyThey ran to him, and, pulling him back by force, stickled that unnatural fray.
6. (intransitive, obsolete) To separate combatants by intervening.
• DrydenWhen he angel sees half of the Christians killed, and the rest in a fair way of being routed, he stickles betwixt the remainder 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.
• HudibrasFortune, as she's wont, turned fickle,
  And for the foe began to stickle.
• Drydenfor paltry punk they roar and stickle
• Hazlittthe obstinacy with which he stickles for the wrong

Related terms

• stickler

Noun

1. (UK, dialect) A shallow rapid in a river.
2. (UK, dialect) The current below a waterfall.
• W. BrownePatient anglers, standing all the day
  Near to some shallow stickle or deep bay.

Anagrams

• icklest
• tickles