stickler

[ stik-ler ]

/ ˈstɪk lər /

SEE 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.

Words nearby stickler

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

Origin of stickler

First recorded in 1530–40; stickle + -er¹

SYNONYMS FOR stickler

1 fanatic, purist, perfectionist.

2 puzzle, riddle, mystery.

SEE SYNONYMS FOR stickler ON THESAURUS.COM

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

/ (ˈstɪklə) /

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

stickler

noun

Content related to stickler

Words related to stickler

Words nearby stickler

Origin of stickler

SYNONYMS FOR stickler

Examples from the Web for stickler

British Dictionary definitions for stickler

noun