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Synonyms

stick at

British  

verb

  1. to continue constantly at

    to stick at one's work

  2. to be prepared to do anything; be unscrupulous or ruthless

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
stick at Idioms  

  1. Scruple or hesitate, as in She sticks at nothing to gain her ends. This idiom, nearly always used in a negative context, was first recorded in 1525. Also see stop at nothing.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Based on the CPI numbers, many economists expected February’s core PCE inflation to stick at 3% or 3.1%.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 13, 2026

That evidence included DNA recovered from a stick at the scene which was 3.8 billion times more likely to have come from Singh than a random member of the public.

From BBC • Dec. 8, 2025

If Betts can stick at shortstop, it would free Tommy Edman to play more center field.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 10, 2025

Alex Wennberg then broke his stick at the tail end of the second penalty and couldn’t get off the ice — forcing his team to play another half-minute effectively down a man.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 4, 2023

I nervously threw a stick at the animal, and it didn’t move, whatever it was.

From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.