stickle

Definitions

1. 1.To contend, contest, or altercate, esp. in a pertinacious manner on insufficient grounds. Fortune, as she 's wont, turned fickle, And for the foe began to stickle. Hudibras. While for paltry punk they roar and stickle. Dryden. The obstinacy with which he stickles for the wrong. Hazlitt.
2. 2.To play fast and loose; to pass from one side to the other; to trim.
3. 3.To separate, as combatants; hence, to quiet, to appease, as disputants. [Obs.] Which [question] violently they pursue, Nor stickled would they be. Drayton.
4. 4.To intervene in; to stop, or put an end to, by intervening; hence, to arbitrate. [Obs.] They ran to him, and, pulling him back by force, stickled that unnatural fray. Sir P. Sidney.
5. 5.A shallow rapid in a river; also, the current below a waterfall. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] Patient anglers, standing all the day Near to some shallow stickle or deep bay. W. Browne.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

Related questions

• What does "stickle" mean?

Reverse-dictionary questions

Definition-first questions whose answer is stickle.

• What is to play fast and loose; to pass from one side to the other; to trim called?
• What is to separate, as combatants; hence, to quiet, to appease, as disputants. [Obs.] Which [question] violently they pursue, Nor stickled would they be. Drayton called?
• What is to intervene in; to stop, or put an end to, by intervening; hence, to arbitrate. [Obs.] They ran to him, and, pulling him back by force, stickled that unnatural fray. Sir P. Sidney called?
• What is a shallow rapid in a river; also, the current below a waterfall. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] Patient anglers, standing all the day Near to some shallow stickle or deep bay. W. Browne called?