Word.ws English Dictionary

stick and carrot

stick and carrot is the alternative form of carrot and stick.

Meaning of carrot and stick

Noun

carrot and stick (plural carrots and sticks)

  1. (idiomatic) The simultaneous rewarding of good behavior and punishing of bad behavior.
    • It was this carrot and stick discipline to which Mr. John Mill was subjected, and which he accepted dutifully as flowing from that perfect wisdom of which up to this time his father had been the representative.1876, Lord Blachford, “The Reality of Duty, as Illustrated by the Autobiography of Mr. John Stuart Mill”, in The Contemporary Review, page 523

Forms of stick and carrot

pluralsticks and carrots

Questions about stick and carrot

What is stick and carrot the alternative form of?
Stick and carrot is the alternative form of carrot and stick.

Words near stick and carrot in the dictionary

  1. stick a fork in me, I'm done
  2. stick a fork in something
  3. stick a needle in my eye
  4. stick a pin there
  5. stick a sock in it
  6. stick and carrot
  7. stick around
  8. stick at
  9. stick at nothing
  10. stick boy
  11. stick boys

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stick and carrot (page history and authors); carrot and stick (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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