Word: stick Part of Speech: verb Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- Proto-Indo-European *stignéh₂- Proto-Germanic *stikkōną Proto-West Germanic *stikkōn Old English stician Middle English stiken English stick From Middle English stiken (“to stick, pierce, stab, remain embedded, be fastened”), from Old English stician (“to pierce, stab, remain embedded, be fastened”), from Proto-West Germanic *stikkōn, from Proto-Germanic *stikkōną (“to pierce, prick, be sharp”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tig-, *(s)teyg- (“to pierce, prick, be sharp”). See also the related Proto-Germanic *stikaną, whence West Frisian stekke, Low German steken, Dutch steken, German stechen; compare also Danish stikke, Swedish sticka. Cognate with the first etymology (same PIE root, different paths through Germanic and Old English), to stitch, and to etiquette, via French étiquette – see there for further discussion. Pronunciation: /stɪk/ 1. To become or remain attached; to adhere. Labels: intransitive Example: The tape will not stick if it melts. Example: The Citizens in their rage, imagining that euery poſt in the Churche had bin one of yᵉ Souldyers, ſhot habbe or nabbe at randon^([sic – meaning random]) uppe to the Roode lofte, and to the Chancell, leauing ſome of theyr arrowes ſticking in the Images. 2. To jam; to stop moving. Labels: intransitive Example: The lever sticks if you push it too far up. 3. To tolerate, to endure, to stick with. Labels: transitive Example: "I've had ten years of it, scratching enough out of it to dress and feed myself when the going's good and sharing a room with a girl friend or pigging it in some cheap boarding-house, and doing a perish when I've been out of a job. I've got to the point where I can't stick it any longer. I'd get out tomorrow if I could find something else to do." Example: Why do most course organizers stick the job for less than five years? 4. To persist. Labels: intransitive Example: His old nickname stuck. Example: "Our team did brilliantly to be in the game. We stuck at it and did a good job. This is disappointing but we'll think about the next game tomorrow." 5. Of snow, to remain frozen on landing. Labels: intransitive 6. To remain loyal; to remain firm. Labels: intransitive Example: Just stick to your strategy, and you will win. Example: After this contencion, the common people did ſticke vnto king Agis, and the riche men followed Leonidas, praying and perſwading him not to forſake them: and further, they did ſo intreate the Senators, in whom conſiſteth the chiefe authority,[…] 7. To hesitate, to be reluctant; to refuse (in negative phrases). Labels: dated, intransitive Example: For thou art so possess’d with murderous hate That ’gainst thyself thou stick’st not to conspire. Example: Some stick not to say, that the Parson and Attorney forg’d a Will, for which they were well Paid […] 8. To be puzzled (at something), have difficulty understanding. Labels: dated, intransitive Example: He that has to do with young scholars, especially in mathematics, may perceive how their minds open by degrees, and how it is exercise alone that opens them. Sometimes they will stick a long time at a part of a demonstration, not for want of perceiving the connection of two ideas; that, to one whose understanding is more exercised, is as visible as any thing can be. 9. To cause difficulties, scruples, or hesitation. Labels: dated, intransitive Example: 1708, Jonathan Swift, The Sentiments of a Church-of-England-Man, with respect to Religion and Government, in The Works of Jonathan Swift, 7th edition, Edinburgh: G. Hamilton et al., 1752, Volume I, Miscellanies in Prose, p. 73, […] this is the Difficulty that seemeth chiefly to stick with the most reasonable of those, who, from a mere Scruple of Conscience, refuse to join with us upon the Revolution Principle […] . 10. To attach with glue or as if by gluing. Labels: transitive Example: Stick the label on the jar. 11. To place, set down (quickly or carelessly). Labels: transitive Example: Stick your bag over there and come with me. Example: Afore we got to the shanty Colonel Applegate stuck his head out of the door. His temper had been getting raggeder all the time, and the sousing he got when he fell overboard had just about ripped what was left of it to ravellings. 12. To press (something with a sharp point) into something else. Labels: transitive Example: The balloon will pop when I stick this pin in it. Example: to stick a needle into one's finger 13. To press (something with a sharp point) into something else. Labels: transitive Example: In certain of their sacrifices they had a lamb, they sticked him, they killed him, and made sacrifice of him: this lamb was Christ the Son of God, he was killed, sticked, and made a sweet-smelling sacrifice for our sins. Example: Thou stickest a dagger in me: I shall never see my gold again: fourscore ducats at a sitting! fourscore ducats! 14. To fix on a pointed instrument; to impale. Labels: transitive Example: to stick an apple on a fork 15. To adorn or deck with things fastened on as by piercing. Labels: archaic, transitive Example: my shroud of white, stuck all with yew 16. To perform (a landing or a shot) perfectly. Labels: transitive Example: Once again, the world champion sticks the dismount. Example: stick the landing 17. To propagate plants by cuttings. Labels: transitive Example: Stick cuttings from geraniums promptly. 18. To run or plane (mouldings) in a machine, in contradistinction to working them by hand. Such mouldings are said to be stuck. Labels: transitive 19. To bring to a halt; to stymie; to puzzle. Labels: dated, transitive Example: to stick somebody with a hard problem 20. To impose upon; to compel to pay; sometimes, to cheat. Labels: dated, slang, transitive Example: Behind all that languid talk she was feverishly computing, "I wonder how much I can stick him for it. A hundred and fifty? But it's worth that - two hundred. He won't value it unless the price is stiff." Example: Chillin' in a Benz with my amigos / Tryin' to stick a nigga for his pesos 21. To have sexual intercourse with. Labels: US, intransitive, slang Example: You ain't lickin' this, you ain't stickin' this Example: You leave your girl around me; if she's bad she's gonna get stuck. 22. To stand pat: to cease taking any more cards and finalize one's hand. Labels: UK, intransitive