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sticking point

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noun

a point, detail, or circumstance causing or likely to cause a stalemate or impasse: The bill would have gone through the Senate quickly but for one sticking point.
sticking place(def 1).

Origin of sticking point

First recorded in 1820–30
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for sticking point

warning, conditions, demand

Examples from the Web for sticking point

Historical Examples of sticking point

  • I do believe one sight of thee would nerve me to the sticking-point.

    Alroy

    Benjamin Disraeli

  • They have screwed up their courage to the sticking-point; and it has stuck.

    Utopia of Usurers and other Essays

    Gilbert Keith Chesterton

  • But Stephens had hardened his heart to the sticking-point, and he refused to wait.

    Lone Pine

    R. B. (Richard Baxter) Townshend

  • If she could only screw up her courage to the sticking-point!

  • And why not screw his courage to the sticking-point, and commune in confidence with his parents?

    Henrietta Temple

    Benjamin Disraeli

British Dictionary definitions for sticking point

sticking point

noun

a problem or point on which agreement cannot be reached, preventing progress from being made
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