Word.ws English Dictionary

stuck

/stʌk/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Ireland/stʊk/

stuck is the simple past and past participle of stick.

Adjective

stuck (comparative more stuck, superlative most stuck)

  1. Unable to move.
    • Can you shift this gate? I think it’s stuck.
    • If you’ve had to battle a stuck zipper, you know how frustrating it can be.
  2. Unable to progress with a task.
    • I’m totally stuck on this question in the test.
  3. No longer functioning, frozen up, frozen.
    • There are several ways to close a stuck program.
  4. (archaic, slang) In the situation of having no money.

Meaning of stick

Verb (1)

stick (third-person singular simple present sticks, present participle sticking, simple past and past participle sticked)

  1. To cut a piece of wood to be the stick member of a cope-and-stick joint.
  2. (dated, slang, transitive) To compose; to set, or arrange, in a composing stick.
    • to stick type
  3. (transitive) To furnish or set with sticks.
  4. To hit with a stick.

Verb (2)

stick (third-person singular simple present sticks, present participle sticking, simple past and past participle stuck or (archaic) sticked)

  1. (intransitive) To become or remain attached; to adhere.
    • The tape will not stick if it melts.
  2. (intransitive) To jam; to stop moving.
    • The lever sticks if you push it too far up.

See all 89 meanings of stick

Noun

stuck (plural stucks)

  1. (obsolete) A thrust, especially with a lance or sword.
    • If he by chance escape your venomed stuck, / Our purpose may hold there.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...

Proper noun capitalized: Stuck

Stuck (plural Stucks)

  1. A surname.

Synonyms of stuck

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Forms of stuck

Adjective
comparativemore stuck
superlativemost stuck
Noun
pluralstucks
Proper noun
pluralStucks

Origin of stuck

Compare stoccado.

German surname, from the noun Stück (“portion, piece”). Compare Stueck.

Words formed from stuck

Phrases with stuck

51 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with stuck

39 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about stuck

What does stuck mean?
Stuck means unable to move.
What is stuck the simple past and past participle of?
Stuck is the simple past and past participle of stick.
What part of speech is stuck?
Stuck can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce stuck?
Stuck is pronounced /stʌk/.

Words near stuck in the dictionary

  1. stuccoworkers
  2. stuccoworks
  3. Stuchbery
  4. Stuchbury
  5. Stuchly
  6. stuck
  7. stuck a needle in my eye
  8. stuck around
  9. stuck at
  10. stuck at nothing
  11. stuck by

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stuck (page history and authors); Stuck (page history and authors); 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Pvanp7-stuck.wav, en-us-stuck.ogg.

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