sticky

American  

[stik-ee] / ˈstɪk i /

adjective

stickier, stickiest

1. having the property of adhering, as glue; adhesive.

2. covered with adhesive or viscid matter.

   sticky hands.

3. (of the weather or climate) hot and humid.

   It was an unbearably sticky day.

   Synonyms:

   steamy, damp, sultry, muggy

4. requiring careful treatment; awkwardly difficult.

   a rather sticky diplomatic problem; Breaking the news is going to be sticky.

5. Informal. unpleasant; unfortunate; nasty.

   The villain of the story meets a sticky end.

---

noun

plural

stickies

1. one of a number of small sheets of paper on a pad, each having an adhesive backing that allows it to be positioned and repositioned on smooth surfaces.

sticky British  

/ ˈstɪkɪ /

adjective

1. covered or daubed with an adhesive or viscous substance

   sticky fingers

2. having the property of sticking to a surface

3. (of weather or atmosphere) warm and humid; muggy

4. (of prices) tending not to fall in deflationary conditions

5. informal difficult, awkward, or painful

   a sticky business

6. informal sentimental

7. (of a website) encouraging users to visit repeatedly

---

verb

1. informal (tr) to make sticky

noun

1. short for stickybeak

2. an inquisitive look or stare (esp in the phrase have a sticky at )

Other Word Forms

• nonsticky adjective
• stickily adverb
• stickiness noun
• unsticky adjective

Etymology

Origin of sticky

1720–30; 1910–15 sticky for def. 4; stick ² + -y ¹

Example Sentences

Its sticky nature and decent turn offered assistance to the spinners and Jacks capitalised.

From BBC

“A cooling economy and sticky inflation wasn’t the combination the markets were looking for, but that’s what they got from this morning’s data,” noted Ellen Zentner, chief economic strategist for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.

From Barron's

He conceded that bonds didn’t work in 2022, as they fell along with stocks as sticky inflation triggered a string of Federal Reserve rate hikes.

From MarketWatch

But the concern is that we have a sustained and sticky inflation environment in which businesses are dribbling in price increases.

From Barron's

Investors have historically been willing to pay more for Microsoft’s suite of sticky enterprise-software offerings and its Azure cloud platform, which is significantly larger than Alphabet’s Google Cloud platform.

From MarketWatch

Related Words

• awkward
• delicate
• heavy
• knotty
• rough
• thorny
• tricky