I. NOUN USES
/stɪk/
( sticks)
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
A stick is a thin branch which has fallen off a tree.
...people carrying bundles of dried sticks to sell for firewood.
N-COUNT
2.
A stick is a long thin piece of wood which is used for supporting someone’s weight or for hitting people or animals.
He looks old and walks with a stick...
Crowds armed with sticks and stones took to the streets.
N-COUNT
see also carrot and stick
3.
A stick is a long thin piece of wood which is used for a particular purpose.
...kebab sticks.
...lolly sticks.
...drum sticks.
N-COUNT : usu n N
4.
Some long thin objects that are used in sports are called sticks .
...lacrosse sticks.
...hockey sticks.
...ski-sticks.
N-COUNT : usu n N
5.
A stick of something is a long thin piece of it.
...a stick of celery.
...cinnamon sticks.
N-COUNT : usu N of n , n N
6.
If you give someone some stick , you criticize them or tease them roughly. ( BRIT INFORMAL )
It’s not motorists who give you the most stick, it’s the general public...
I get some stick from the lads because of my faith but I don’t mind.
N-UNCOUNT
7.
If you say that someone lives in the sticks , you mean that they live a long way from any large cities. ( INFORMAL )
He lived out in the sticks somewhere.
N-PLURAL : the N [ disapproval ]
8.
If someone gets the wrong end of the stick or gets hold of the wrong end of the stick , they do not understand something correctly and get the wrong idea about it. ( INFORMAL )
PHRASE : V inflects
II. VERB USES
/stɪk/
( sticks, sticking, stuck)
Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English.
Please look at category 9 to see if the expression you are looking for is shown under another headword.
1.
If you stick something somewhere, you put it there in a rather casual way. ( INFORMAL )
He folded the papers and stuck them in his desk drawer...
Jack opened his door and stuck his head out.
VERB : V n prep / adv , V n prep / adv
2.
If you stick a pointed object in something, or if it sticks in something, it goes into it or through it by making a cut or hole.
Some punk stuck a knife in her last night...
The soldiers went at once to the mound and began to stick their bayonets through it...
The knife stuck in the ground at his feet.
VERB : V n in/into/through n , V n in/into/through n , V in n
3.
If something is sticking out from a surface or object, it extends up or away from it. If something is sticking into a surface or object, it is partly in it.
They lay where they had fallen from the crane, sticking out of the water...
His hair sticks up in half a dozen directions.
...when we see her with lots of tubes and needles sticking into her little body.
VERB : V adv / prep , V adv / prep , V adv / prep
4.
If you stick one thing to another, you attach it using glue, sticky tape, or another sticky substance.
We just stuck it to the window...
He has nowhere to stick up his posters...
Stick down any loose bits of flooring.
VERB : V n prep , V n with adv , V n with adv
5.
If one thing sticks to another, it becomes attached to it and is difficult to remove.
Peel away the waxed paper if it has stuck to the bottom of the cake...
If left to stand, cooked pasta sticks together.
VERB : V to n , V together
6.
If something sticks in your mind, you remember it for a long time.
The incident stuck in my mind because it was the first example I had seen of racism in that country...
VERB : V in n
7.
If something which can usually be moved sticks , it becomes fixed in one position.
The needle on the dial went right round to fifty feet, which was as far as it could go, and there it stuck...
VERB : V
8.
see also stuck
9.
to stick in your throat: see throat