stickleback

[ stik-uh l-bak ]

/ ˈstɪk əlˌbæk /

noun

any of the small, pugnacious, spiny-backed fishes of the family Gasterosteidae, inhabiting northern fresh waters and sea inlets, the male of which builds and guards the nest.

Words nearby stickleback

sticking place, sticking plaster, sticking point, stickit, stickle, stickleback, stickler, stickler syndrome, stickley, stickman, stickout

Origin of stickleback

1400–50; late Middle English stykylbak, equivalent to Old English sticol scaly + bæc back¹

Also called prickleback.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for stickleback

What was there called the "tittlebat" is really that nest-building fish, the stickleback.
Liberty In The Nineteenth Century|Frederic May Holland
For, like almost all polygamists, your stickleback is a terrible fighter.
A Book of Natural History|Various
The stickleback floundered about the boat, pricking and snapping until he was quite out of breath.
The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher|Beatrix Potter
And, as it happened, they had just pulled their last legs through the open doorway when a Stickleback Father came along.
Among the Pond People|Clara Dillingham Pierson

By the by, you haven't sent me Stickleback's jack-ass as you promised.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXLII. Vol. LV. April, 1844|Various

British Dictionary definitions for stickleback

stickleback

/ (ˈstɪkəlˌbæk) /

noun

any small teleost fish of the family Gasterosteidae, such as Gasterosteus aculeatus (three-spined stickleback) of rivers and coastal regions and G. pungitius (ten-spined stickleback) confined to rivers. They have a series of spines along the back and occur in cold and temperate northern regions

Word Origin for stickleback

C15: from Old English stickel prick, sting + back 1

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