Word: stick Part of Speech: noun Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- Proto-Indo-European *stignéh₂- Proto-Germanic *stikkōną Proto-Germanic *stikkô Proto-West Germanic *stikkō Old English sticca Middle English stikke English stick From Middle English stikke (“stick, rod, twig”), from Old English sticca (“rod, twig”), from Proto-West Germanic *stikkō, from Proto-Germanic *stikkô (“stick, pole”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to pierce, prick, be sharp”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Stikke (“stick”), West Flemish stik (“stick”), Dutch stek (“spot, place, home”), German Low German Stick (“stick”), German Stecken (“stick”), Danish and Norwegian stikke (“stick”), Swedish sticka (“splinter, needle”). Related to stigma. Pronunciation: /stɪk/ 1. An elongated piece of wood or similar material, typically put to some use, for example as a wand or baton. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: The beaver's dam was made out of sticks. Example: Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. 2. An elongated piece of wood or similar material, typically put to some use, for example as a wand or baton. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: I found several good sticks in the brush heap. Example: What do you call a boomerang that won't come back? A stick. 3. An elongated piece of wood or similar material, typically put to some use, for example as a wand or baton. Labels: US, countable, uncountable Example: I found enough sticks in dumpsters at construction sites to build my shed. 4. An elongated piece of wood or similar material, typically put to some use, for example as a wand or baton. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: I don’t need my stick to walk, but it’s helpful. Example: The slightest effort made the patient cough. He would stand leaning on a stick and holding a hand to his side, and when the paroxysm had passed it left him shaking. 5. An elongated piece of wood or similar material, typically put to some use, for example as a wand or baton. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: As soon as the fight started, the guards came in swinging their sticks. 6. An elongated piece of wood or similar material, typically put to some use, for example as a wand or baton. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: When cutting the door parts, I cut all the copes first, then the sticks. 7. An elongated piece of wood or similar material, typically put to some use, for example as a wand or baton. Labels: countable, uncountable 8. An elongated piece of wood or similar material, typically put to some use, for example as a wand or baton. Labels: countable, figuratively, uncountable Example: We were so poor we didn't have one stick of furniture. Example: It is more than poor Philip is worth, with all his savings and his little sticks of furniture. 9. An elongated piece of wood or similar material, typically put to some use, for example as a wand or baton. Labels: countable, slang, uncountable Example: I've been working behind the stick for twenty years. Example: […] other side of the stick, that's what they call the bar around here. 10. Any roughly cylindrical (or rectangular) unit of a substance. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Sealing wax is available as a cylindrical or rectangular stick. 11. Any roughly cylindrical (or rectangular) unit of a substance. Labels: Canada, US, countable, uncountable Example: The recipe calls for half a stick of butter. 12. Any roughly cylindrical (or rectangular) unit of a substance. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Don’t hog all that gum, give me a stick! 13. Any roughly cylindrical (or rectangular) unit of a substance. Labels: countable, slang, uncountable Example: Cigarettes are taxed at one dollar per stick. 14. Material or objects attached to a stick or the like. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: My parents bought us each a stick of cotton candy. 15. Material or objects attached to a stick or the like. Labels: archaic, countable, uncountable Example: Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it[…] 16. Material or objects attached to a stick or the like. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Scores of transport planes streamed in to drop stick after stick of containers until the entire sky over the coast was polka-dotted with brightly coloured parachutes. Example: A stick of bombs fell straight across Wotton; blew up half a dozen houses. 17. A tool, control, or instrument shaped somewhat like a stick. Labels: US, colloquial, countable, uncountable Example: I grew up driving a stick, but many people my age didn't. 18. A tool, control, or instrument shaped somewhat like a stick. Labels: US, colloquial, uncountable Example: I grew up driving stick, but many people my age didn't. 19. A tool, control, or instrument shaped somewhat like a stick. Labels: countable, uncountable 20. A tool, control, or instrument shaped somewhat like a stick. Labels: uncountable Example: For example: in making a turn, should you throw on too much stick and not enough rudder, you'll sideslip. 21. A tool, control, or instrument shaped somewhat like a stick. Labels: US, World-War-I, countable, slang, uncountable 22. A tool, control, or instrument shaped somewhat like a stick. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: The keyboard offers a full range of actions including Fight and you are given the option of using a Kempston stick for the movement combat. Example: When you’re swooping, looping, and diving with the analog stick (either using the nunchuk or the Classic controller), the game feels very much like its 32-bit predecessor; […] 23. A tool, control, or instrument shaped somewhat like a stick. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: For ultimate presentation portability, a Powerpoint can be saved to a stick as images. 24. A tool, control, or instrument shaped somewhat like a stick. Labels: countable, slang, uncountable Example: A stick in the hand, a drop in the eye. Example: You think you’re real now you’ve got a couple sticks? My favourite younger, he got stabbed in my bits. And if he died fam, I promise I’d have quit. 25. A tool, control, or instrument shaped somewhat like a stick. Labels: countable, dated, uncountable Example: […]although the headings may often be in other type, still, as these are composed in the same stick, they cannot fail to justify;[…] 26. A tool, control, or instrument shaped somewhat like a stick. Labels: countable, slang, uncountable Example: Arsene, boy, ain't you worried about your clarinet? Where'd you leave that stick, man? 27. A stick-like item: Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Tripping with the stick is a violation of the rules. 28. A stick-like item: Labels: countable, uncountable 29. A stick-like item: Labels: countable, uncountable 30. A stick-like item: Labels: countable, uncountable Example: His wedge shot bounced off the stick and went in the hole. 31. A stick-like item: Labels: US, slang, uncountable Example: His stroke with that two-piece stick is a good as anybody's in the club. 32. A stick-like item: Labels: US, countable, slang, uncountable Example: He shoots a mean stick of pool. Example: Come in, have a good time, drink some beer, shoot some stick, listen to some music. 33. Ability; specifically: Labels: countable, uncountable Example: I doubted that the three iron was enough stick. 34. Ability; specifically: Labels: countable, uncountable 35. Ability; specifically: Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Vaughn has to hit and keep hitting or this will be another year when the Mets don't have enough stick to win. 36. Ability; specifically: Labels: countable, uncountable 37. A person or group of people. (Perhaps, in some senses, because people are, broadly speaking, tall and thin, like pieces of wood.) Labels: countable, dated, slang, uncountable Example: Your father's a great old stick. He's really been very good to me. Example: “[…]He’s a good doctor but an odd stick—odder by far than I am, Emily, and yet nobody ever says he’s not all there. Can you account for that? He doesn’t believe in God—and I am not such a fool as that.” 38. A person or group of people. (Perhaps, in some senses, because people are, broadly speaking, tall and thin, like pieces of wood.) Labels: countable, dated, slang, uncountable Example: "She's a stick, this one. She lacks your—" he patted her left breast— "equipment." 39. A person or group of people. (Perhaps, in some senses, because people are, broadly speaking, tall and thin, like pieces of wood.) Labels: countable, dated, slang, uncountable Example: The kid was a stick, a plant, a student from UNLV who picked up a few bucks nightly by saying the words "seven of hearts." 40. A person or group of people. (Perhaps, in some senses, because people are, broadly speaking, tall and thin, like pieces of wood.) Labels: countable, dated, slang, uncountable Example: A shill is also called a stick, and the role of the shill or stick is to make the customer relax and feel at ease. 41. A person or group of people. (Perhaps, in some senses, because people are, broadly speaking, tall and thin, like pieces of wood.) Labels: countable, dated, slang, uncountable 42. A person or group of people. (Perhaps, in some senses, because people are, broadly speaking, tall and thin, like pieces of wood.) Labels: countable, dated, slang, uncountable Example: Bill Kirk, described by Robin as a "hell of a stick," didn't even attend college until after the Vietnam War. 43. A person or group of people. (Perhaps, in some senses, because people are, broadly speaking, tall and thin, like pieces of wood.) Labels: South-Africa, countable, dated, slang, uncountable Example: I remember when we dreaded the rain, as our stick of soldiers walked through the damp, tick-infested long grass of the Zambezi valley,[…] 44. Encouragement or punishment, or (resulting) vigour or other improved behavior. Labels: countable, figuratively, uncountable Example: We were tempted with the carrot but subtly threatened with the stick. Example: What about contempt? Isn't it used by the judiciary as a stick to dissuade people from writing or talking about them? 45. Encouragement or punishment, or (resulting) vigour or other improved behavior. Labels: slang, uncountable Example: The child killers got some stick. I saw a woman throw a basin of scalding water over a baby killer. Example: “[…] Nigel used the word ‘invasion’ for a long time and got a huge amount of stick […]” he says, referring to the total number of men, women and children who have arrived by small boat in the past seven years. 46. Encouragement or punishment, or (resulting) vigour or other improved behavior. Labels: UK, countable, figuratively, uncountable Example: Most people can remember their first taste of cider: sandwiched between an illicit fag and a bout of throwing up. It’s always been the teen drink of choice: available in group-sized bottles and with a more acceptably fruity taste than beer. It is also the down-and-out’s favourite tipple because it’s stronger than many bitters and lagers, so it’s a cheap way to get wasted. As a consequence, it has never been the hippest of drinks. As a devotee, I’ve come in for some stick over the years. Example: I got some stick personally because of my walking attire. I arrived to training fully kitted out in sturdy walking boots. 47. Encouragement or punishment, or (resulting) vigour or other improved behavior. Labels: countable, slang, uncountable Example: He really gave that digging some stick. Example: She really gave that bully some stick. 48. Encouragement or punishment, or (resulting) vigour or other improved behavior. Labels: countable, slang, uncountable Example: Skunk really gave it some stick all the way to Caliban's place, we passed a good few Coppers but they all seemed to turn the blind eye. 49. A measure. Labels: countable, obsolete, uncountable Example: There was another speech in that day's news — a speech which The Times printed on the front page because it was part of a front-page story, and in full — it was only two sticks long; printed in full just after the much longer invocation by the officiating clergyman […] 50. A measure. Labels: archaic, countable, rare, uncountable Example: The stick is employed for eels, and contained twenty-five. Example: In the same charter, Nigel granted another 10 sticks of eels yielded by the fishery of Polwere to the abbey[…] 51. Any of the eight 16-character groups making up the 128 characters of the 7-bit ASCII character set. Labels: countable, uncountable