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. Stickle
(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. Stickleback
(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.
Stickler
(Stic"kler) 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
(Stick"-seed`) n. (Bot.) A plant (Echinospermum Lappula) of the Borage family, with small
blue flowers and prickly nutlets.
Sticktail
(Stick"tail`) n. The ruddy duck. [Local, U.S.]
Stick-tight
(Stick"-tight`) n. (Bot.) Beggar's ticks.
Sticky
(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.
Bacon. Stiddy
(Stid"dy) n. [See Stithy.] An anvil; also, a smith shop. See Stithy. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.
Stiff
(Stiff) a. [Compar. Stiffer ; superl. Stiffest.] [OE. stif, AS. stif; akin to D. stijf, G. steif, Dan.
stiv, Sw. styf, Icel. stifr, Lith. stipti to be stiff; cf. L. stipes a post, trunk of a tree, stipare to press,
compress. Cf. Costive, Stifle, Stipulate, Stive to stuff.]
1. Not easily bent; not flexible or pliant; not limber or flaccid; rigid; firm; as, stiff wood, paper, joints.
[They] rising on stiff pennons, tower
The mid aërial sky.
Milton. 2. Not liquid or fluid; thick and tenacious; inspissated; neither soft nor hard; as, the paste is stiff.
3. Firm; strong; violent; difficult to oppose; as, a stiff gale or breeze.
