Word.ws English Dictionary

stickle

/ˈstɪk(ə)l/

stickle noun: a sharp point; prickle; a spine.

Noun (1)

stickle (plural stickles)

  1. A sharp point; prickle; a spine

Adjective

stickle (comparative more stickle, superlative most stickle)

  1. Steep; high; inaccessible.
  2. (UK, dialectal) High, as the water of a river; swollen; sweeping; rapid.

Noun (2)

stickle (plural stickles)

  1. (UK, dialectal) A shallow rapid in a river.
    • He swam through the plying poles of the stickle, and ran over the shallow, reaching safe water before the pack came down. He was young and fast and strong.1927, Henry William Williamson, Tarka the Otter, Chapter 19
  2. (UK, dialectal) The current below a waterfall.
    • [P]atient Anglers ſtanding all the day / Neere to ſome ſhallovv ſtickle or deepe bay.1616, William Browne, “The Fifth Song”, in Britannia’s Pastorals. The Second Booke, London: […] Thomas Snodham for George Norton, […], →OCLC, page 143

Verb

stickle (third-person singular simple present stickles, present participle stickling, simple past and past participle stickled)

  1. (UK, dialectal, obsolete) To act as referee or arbiter; to mediate.
  2. (UK, archaic, dialectal) To argue or struggle for.
    • ‘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.’1897, Henry James, What Maisie Knew
  3. (UK, dialectal) To raise objections; to argue stubbornly, especially over minor or trivial matters.
    • 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.1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, (please specify the book or page number)
  4. (UK, dialectal, obsolete, transitive) To separate, as combatants; hence, to quiet, to appease, as disputants.
    • Which [question] violently they pursue, / Nor stickled would they be.1630, Michael Drayton, The Muses' Elizium
  5. (UK, dialectal, obsolete, transitive) To intervene in; to stop, or put an end to, by intervening.
    • They ran to him, and, pulling him back by force, stickled that unnatural fray.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...
  6. (UK, dialectal, intransitive, obsolete) To separate combatants by intervening.
    • 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.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...
  7. (UK, dialectal, intransitive, obsolete) To contend, contest, or altercate, especially in a pertinacious manner on insufficient grounds.
    • Fortune, as she’s wont, turned fickle, / And for the foe began to stickle.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...
    • for paltry punk they roar and stickle1684, John Dryden, To The Disappointment

Proper noun capitalized: Stickle

Stickle (plural Stickles)

  1. A surname.

stickle meaning in Tamil

stickle in Tamil

போட்டிப்பந்தயத்தை ஒழுங்கு செய்

Forms of stickle

Noun
pluralstickles
Adjective
comparativemore stickle
superlativemost stickle
Verb
third-person singular presentstickles
present participlestickling
past participlestickled
paststickled
Proper noun
pluralStickles

Origin of stickle

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”), Polish szkło (“glass”), Lithuanian sti̇̀klas, Romanian sticlă).

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”).

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”).

Words formed from stickle

Words that rhyme with stickle

7 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about stickle

What does stickle mean?
Stickle means a sharp point; prickle; a spine.
What is stickle in Tamil?
Stickle in Tamil is போட்டிப்பந்தயத்தை ஒழுங்கு செய். See Stickle meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is stickle?
Stickle can be a noun, an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce stickle?
Stickle is pronounced /ˈstɪk(ə)l/ (UK).
What is the plural of stickle?
The plural of stickle is stickles.

Words near stickle in the dictionary

  1. stickit ministers
  2. stickjaw
  3. stickjaws
  4. sticklac
  5. Stickland
  6. stickle
  7. stickleback
  8. sticklebacks
  9. sticklebag
  10. sticklebags
  11. stickled

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stickle (page history and authors); Stickle (page history and authors); stickle (Tamil Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-stickle.wav.

Cite this entry: “stickle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stickle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.