# stickle
## English
### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /ˈstɪk(ə)l/
** Audio (Southern England):(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”). Cognate with Dutch stekel, Icelandic stikill, Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌹𐌺𐌻𐍃 (stikls) (whence Russian стекло́ (stekló, “glass”), Lithuanian stìklas).

#### Noun

stickle (plural stickles)
* 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)
* Steep; high; inaccessible.
* (UK, dialect) High, as the water of a river; swollen; sweeping; rapid.

#### Noun

stickle (plural stickles) (British, dialectal)
* A shallow rapid in a river.
* The current below a waterfall.
** 1616, William Browne, “The Fourth Song”, in Britannia’s Pastorals. The Second Booke, London: […] Iohn Haviland, published 1625, →OCLC, 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).
For the development of /təl/ to /kəl/, compare huckleberry and dialectal turkle (“turtle”).

#### Verb

stickle (third-person singular simple present stickles, present participle stickling, simple past and past participle stickled)
* (obsolete) To act as referee or arbiter; to mediate.
* (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.’
* To raise objections; to argue stubbornly, especially over minor or trivial matters.
** 1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, (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.
* (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.
* (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; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC, folio 9, recto:They ran to him, and, pulling him back by force, stickled that unnatural fray.
* (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: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.
* (intransitive, obsolete) To contend, contest, or altercate, especially in a pertinacious manner on insufficient grounds.
** 1662 (indicated as 1663), [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, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC: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, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* “stickle”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
* “stickle”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

### Anagrams

* Stickel, Tickles, icklest, lickest, tickles