stickler

[stik-ler]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR stickler ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a person who insists on something unyieldingly (usually followed by for): a stickler for ceremony.

any puzzling or difficult problem.

Origin of stickler

First recorded in 1530–40; stickle + -er¹

Synonyms for stickler

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR stickler ON THESAURUS.COM

1. fanatic, purist, perfectionist. 2. puzzle, riddle, mystery.

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

Examples from the Web for stickler

Her grammar is fine—Ann is a stickler for grammar—and her anecdotes make sense in that they have a beginning, a middle and an end.
Hatchet Job of the Year 2014 Shortlist Announced|The Telegraph|January 19, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Maybe she's a cop who is a stickler for the rules because she's trying to impress the men upstairs.
Why Crime Novelists Don't Get Women|Christopher Rice|April 12, 2010|DAILY BEAST
But I ain't such a stickler for sharp-edged goodness myself nor in any way at all virtuous.
Green Valley|Katharine Reynolds
I thought you were a stickler for people keeping to their own station, and not aping their betters!
A Charming Fellow, Volume III (of 3)|Frances Eleanor Trollope

He finished by becoming a punctilious practitioner of Parliamentary forms, a stickler for the minutest observation of order.
The Strand Magazine, Volume V, Issue 27, March 1893|Various
In middle age, we find him more of a stickler for propriety of costume.
Mr. Punch's History of Modern England Vol. IV of IV.|Charles L. Graves
Although I am a stickler for old-time ways and things, I think I shall leave out all of the old spring dosing except the greens.
In Pastures Green|Peter McArthur

British Dictionary definitions for stickler

stickler

noun

(usually foll by for) a person who makes insistent demandsa stickler for accuracy

a problem or puzzlethe investigation proved to be a stickler

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

Word Origin and History for stickler

1530s, "moderator, umpire," from stickle "mediate" (1520s), probably a frequentative of Middle English stihen "to arrange, place," from Old English stihan "to arrange order," which is cognate with Middle Dutch stichten, German stiften "to found, establish," probably from Proto-Germanic *stihtan "to place on a step or base," from PIE root *steigh- "to stride, step, rise" (see stair). Meaning "person who contends or insists stubbornly" is first recorded 1640s.

stickler

noun

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Origin of stickler

Synonyms for stickler

Examples from the Web for stickler

stickler

noun