stickle
Americanverb (used without object)
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to argue or haggle insistently, especially on trivial matters.
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to raise objections; scruple; demur.
verb
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to dispute stubbornly, esp about minor points
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to refuse to agree or concur, esp by making petty stipulations
Etymology
Origin of stickle
1520–30; variant of obsolete stightle to set in order, frequentative of stight to set in order, Middle English stighten, Old English stihtan to arrange; cognate with German stiften, Old Norse stētta to set up
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.
See Examples For:
Classicists from Nick's, who stickle for the traditions of the Chicago Style, nodded their heads in austere approval.
From Time Magazine Archive
Meanwhile in London His Majesty's Government continued to stickle for the oath in a sharp note to the Irish Free State, so sharp that last week neither sender nor receiver would divulge the contents.
From Time Magazine Archive
Do you think a Silenus would hesitate and stickle and scruple over a point of honor; though some of us have seen Silenus blunder into a paradise which he promptly transformed into a sty?
From The Freebooters of the Wilderness by Laut, Agnes C. (Agnes Christina)
This onely I thinke, that the like before was neuer seene: and in this place we had very stickle and strong currents.
From The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation, Vol. XII., America, Part I. by Hakluyt, Richard
Browne's Pastoral, "The Squirrel Hunt," we read of— "Patient anglers, standing all the day Near to some shallow stickle, or deep bay."
"Ten to one as a County magnate he stickled for it, and the High Sheriff put him on the panel to keep him amused."
From Lady Good-for-Nothing by Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas, Sir
The widow Bevis indeed stickled hard for me.
From Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 5 by Richardson, Samuel
Ammon stickled for the eternal principle of righteousness, and contended that it had been violated in the first instance.
From Cotton is King, and Pro-Slavery Arguments Comprising the Writings of Hammond, Harper, Christy, Stringfellow, Hodge, Bledsoe, and Cartrwright on This Important Subject by Elliott, E. N.
He stickled as little against mere forms as for them; only, if they stood between the soul and Christ or between a Christian and his brethren, then he was their uncompromising opponent.
From The Life of St. Paul by Stalker, James
Other critics have not stickled to assert that it has mischievously affected the volume of the Colony's industries, a statement which is simply untrue.
From The Long White Cloud by Reeves, William Pember
The film, which was made largely with a $20,000 grant from the Wikimedia Foundation, spends time showing what has been lost to Wikipedia because of stickling rules of citation and verification.
From New York Times ● Aug. 8, 2011
After the "Schweinehund Speech," however, it was clear that Briand and Poincare are one in stickling for cash.
From Time Magazine Archive
At last the Senate sent to make terms with Cinna; but while they were stickling about acknowledging his title of consul, he advanced to the gates.
From The Gracchi Marius and Sulla Epochs of Ancient History by Beesley, A.H.
The artists fought this influence, stickling a long time for the severer classicism of ancient Greece.
From A Text-Book of the History of Painting by Van Dyke, John Charles
Such a centralization must inevitably be produced by decay of that stubborn stickling for rights, out of which local self-government has always grown.
From History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III by Stanton, Elizabeth Cady
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.
