STICK


Meaning of STICK in English

I. verb

COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES

be stuck/caught/held up in traffic

Sorry I’m late – I was stuck in traffic.

carrot and stick approach

the government’s carrot and stick approach in getting young people to find jobs

cocktail stick

fish stick

French stick

gear stick

get sth caught/stuck etc

She got her foot caught in the wire.

joss stick

keep to/stick to a plan

We’re sticking to our original plan.

Memory Stick

pogo stick

remain/stay/stick in your memory (= be remembered for a long time )

That day will remain in my memory forever.

sb's ears stick out (= they are noticeable because they do not lie flat against someone's head )

If my hair is too short, you can see that my ears stick out.

shooting stick

stick figure

stick insect

young models who look like stick insects are very thin

stick man

stick of celery

a stick of celery

stick shift

stick to a diet (= continue to follow a diet )

Most people find it hard to stick to a diet.

stick to the facts (= say only what you know is true )

Just stick to the facts when the police interview you.

stick to your principles (= act according to them, even when this is difficult )

Throughout this time, he stuck to his principles and spoke out against injustice.

stick to your story (= keep saying it is true )

He didn’t believe her at first, but she stuck to her story.

stick to/go by the rules informal (= obey them )

We all have to stick to the rules.

sticking point

North Korea’s refusal had long been a sticking point.

stuck in a rut

I was stuck in a rut and decided to look for a new job.

stuck in...traffic jam

We were stuck in a traffic jam for two hours.

stuck out...tongue

The girl scowled at me, then stuck out her tongue .

stuck together through thick and thin

Then, families stuck together through thick and thin .

stuck...morass

They were stuck in a morass of paperwork.

swizzle stick

walking stick

COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS

■ ADVERB

around

Most don't stick around long enough.

It all goes merrily or unhappily along whether you stick around to watch or not.

She liked to stick around , see the results, maybe enjoy some off-camera larks in the back office.

He also has a lucrative five-year contract at Hilton that makes it worth his while to stick around .

They should bloody well have stuck around till we turned up.

They announced that they wanted to talk to everyone, and they asked everyone to stick around for a while.

There was some problem about him getting paid so he stuck around .

Why do beneficial bugs stick around ?

fast

It involves wearing a suit covered with velcro hooks, which then sticks fast to a velcro covered target.

It was summer, and the door, which was rarely opened, must have swelled in place and stuck fast .

After he had hit, Silva chased up the hill to establish that his ball had stuck fast to the putting surface.

But once established, life stuck fast .

We are an odd collection assembled here, stuck fast like stubborn limpets to that eastern shore throughout the winter.

They stick fast , round here.

in

There is comfort to be had in sticking with what is most tangible.

So don't hang around ... get stuck in !

You have got just to find some place and stay there and get stuck in .

Against the superlative archers of Ulthuan my inclination is to get stuck in as quickly as possible.

That's commendable in some ways but good forward play depends on honest commitment with everyone getting stuck in.

Half your army wants to hang back and shoot, the other half wants to get stuck in as quickly as possible.

What a lousy place for children to be stuck in .

A Mob of even five Boar Boyz is potentially very strong and can get stuck in once your core units are committed.

just

Just stick around here until we can think of something.

Just stick with today; is what he recommends.

Why doesn't one just stick to the ordinary, real time that we understand?

Why not just stick with egg rolls and pot stickers, which most kitchens can handle with relative ease?

I know it's not easy at first, so you just stick with us.

I just stuck it in there.

He offers me a free go too but I just stick my nose in the air and say no thanks.

Some of us just stick to the shadows and sneak by.

out

He grimaced and scratched his short, curly black hair where it stuck out from under his tartan cap.

You are horrified to see a small foot sticking out from behind your rear tire.

Typical of young shearwaters, it was just a ball of grey down with a beak sticking out .

Before that, Donahue climbed down the iron rungs sticking out the sides of the manhole.

Under his arm he carried a large portfolio of drawings and she saw that he had pencils sticking out from his pocket.

Say you were stuck out in the Sonoran wilderness at high noon in summer, lost, thirsty and tired.

They can also be distinguished by their almost globular shape and the long protruding remnant of the style sticking out on top.

A real pilot tossed dynamite sticks out the window of his Cessna.

to

The record of negotiating - and sticking to - regional specialisation in basic industries has not been impressive.

Some diets are easier to stick to than others; some give better results than others.

Don't paint short nails with dark colours. Stick to very pale or clear shades.

Its leaders have policies they want to stick to.

Why do I find it so hard to stick to?

together

Nicola and Emily stuck together and together they stuck to Richard, content to be a part of it all.

The key was lineage; members of the Anglo-Saxon ascendancy stuck together .

Some diets are coated by the manufacturer to prevent the pellets sticking together during autoclaving.

The oil caused the birds' feathers to stick together and hurt their ability to fly.

This technique involves nudging two or more zona-free 8- to 16-cell embryos together in culture until they stick together.

They stick together , and they stick close.

We've just got to pull ourselves together and stick together and we can pull out of this.

Rebelling against the manager that formed them, the girls decided to stick together and make their own choices.

up

When they'd stuck up the paintings, which made the room less like a chalky concrete box, they ran downstairs.

He pointed to a fresh cut on a scrawny root sticking up through the dust.

When push came to shove, I stuck up for him.

She wore black tights, and maroon socks that stuck up above her boots.

A couple of years later he graduated to sticking up posters to advertise concerts.

They turned their heads again when they saw the bright blue racing wheelchair sticking up out of the back seat.

But there the aircraft is, its fuselage sticking up out of your house.

Should I still stick up for her? &038;.

■ NOUN

car

The Severn Tag is stuck inside a car windscreen.

The family also sticks to used cars .

Hundreds of fans at the Reading Rock Festival were stuck with their cars and vans in thick mud last night.

Facilities director Rick Harris said he stopped elevator service to make sure no one would get stuck in the cars .

But he seemed stuck in the car .

craw

He and the son have a whole lot sticking in their craw .

He was jammed up against something; there was something stuck in his craw .

finger

Masklin stuck a finger in his ear and wiggled it around.

You must have stuck your finger in there or something.

I clenched out the light and stuck my fingers in my ears.

You might have to press in material sticking out with your finger , without smearing the wood.

It was so cold that it burnt her, so cold that it stuck to her fingers .

Once the rope was removed, he rolled Gao Ma on to his back and again stuck a finger under his nose.

It will be they who commit the most crime, it will be they who will stick two fingers up to conventional mores.

George stuck out his index finger and raised his thumb.

gun

He told her that being firm, sticking to one's guns in situations of this kind, always paid off.

But Klein stuck to his guns .

The two brothers had conversation after conversation on the theme of religion, the younger one sticking to his guns .

And there was great admiration for Livingstone's transparent honesty, self-effacing modesty and determination to stick to his guns .

Spenser should have stuck to his guns and been satisfied with unity of design.

Whether I'd stuck to my guns or not, it had been a harrowing experience and I felt abused.

The clubs should have stuck to their guns .

hair

He grimaced and scratched his short, curly black hair where it stuck out from under his tartan cap.

She's got this cute little duffle coat on and a bobble hat with her hair sticking out the bottom.

And I usually pin my hair up and stick it under a baseball cap.

She looked grotesque, a little ridiculous, with thin clumps of hair sticking out of her mouth as if she was munching.

Her hair was stuck in spikes with jam.

His red hair stuck out at all angles.

His black hair sticks out from wind and rain.

A hair was stuck to it, a red one, the boy's.

hand

Feeling small and lousy, not knowing what to do; fit for nothing, not even to stick out your hand .

He stuck his hands into his pockets, the fingers numb and red.

He stuck out his hand for a handshake.

I stuck out a hand and found him, and we got in and Patience gave him her address.

As she did both Ellie and Patsy stuck their hands into the jar together for the delicious looking cookies.

The lump pushed gently at its front and she stuck her hands in her pockets and thrust it forward.

It looked as if Changez had stuck his hand into a fire and had had flesh, bone and sinew melted together.

The man takes a plastic tub of something and sticks his hands in it.

head

I was coming through from my bathroom, so I stuck my head round the door.

I stuck my head out of the window and took deep breaths of the fragrant air.

The Campbell's all-black window swished down and evil Jim stuck his head out.

The chestnut colt stuck its head in through the open window to lick her hand with its warm tongue.

But what sticks in my head , ridiculously, is the cabinet pudding.

Those drills where they make us stick our heads between our legs?

A sigh of relief whistled through his teeth as he stuck his head into the pantry.

At one point I almost had to stick my head out the window.

jam

Her hair was stuck in spikes with jam .

Congestion makes things worse: cars stuck in traffic jams pollute three times as much as those on the open road.

mind

I think those types of things stick in children's minds , so I didn't want her there.

Yet the one small doubt stuck in her mind like a burr in tweed.

But it stuck in my mind .

It must have stuck in her mind , that an honest person might act out of character when severely threatened.

It is not surprising that phrases do not stick in the mind .

One incident that has always stuck in my mind was when I dove for my foxhole at the opening mortar round.

One boy,, really sticks out in my mind .

Perhaps the image is just so startling that it sticks in our minds .

mud

If he'd gone right down, he'd have stuck in the mud , and been out of the tide.

One day while sailing down the Mississippi the Diamond Joe became stuck in mud .

neck

You don't have to stick your neck out in meetings.

The experts avoid sticking their own necks out.

He'd stuck his neck out all right, but not as much as he'd led Holman to believe.

She listened to his ideas, had even stuck her neck out to champion some of his more radical plans.

And many economists are reluctant to stick their necks out.

Let Bixby stick his neck out for once, he thought as he stared wearily at his folded hands.

So I have decided to stick my neck out and to make some predictions for the next 30 years.

I want to stick my neck out and help her.

nose

He offers me a free go too but I just stick my nose in the air and say no thanks.

Hairs sticking out of his nose and ears.

Well, why not - he was sticking his nose in everywhere else.

Sammy stuck his nose in the air, delighted at such attention.

But maybe he's thinking that Gerald and Les might like to know you're sticking your nose in.

We all stuck our noses that much deeper into the Colonel's Sumbanese rugs.

Often he was right, often I gave him a bad time for sticking his nose in.

Bossy matriarch Pauline Faaahhhhler finds out she's the real grandma of Sonia's baby and sticks her nose right in.

plan

It was not in him to stick to a plan .

Watts says he intends to stick to his plan of serving only three terms in the House.

The business world rewards those who stick to a plan .

principle

She was not to know that Tina, sticking to her principles , had long ago slept with her cousin Jarvis.

But we have to stick to our principles .

What a revolution there would be in our behaviour and attitudes if we were to stick to those two principles !

Nizan stuck to his principles , but after 1939 he became a political refugee.

On receiving the petition demanding Outram's resignation they stuck to the principle of laissez-faire.

Eddi Reader is one who sticks to the principles established in her old band Fairground Attraction.

Had I stuck to my principles or had I simply followed orders?

May we come to respect ourselves for sticking to our principles and living our lives with honesty and integrity.

rule

I'd stuck to the rules arid nothing had happened.

That government said at the summit it was sticking to the rules , and then suggested afterward it would not not.

Voice over Failure to stick to the safety rules is simply playing with fire.

It was all right if she was hours late, but Henry had to stick to the rules .

story

Mrs Nowak and Taczek must have got to know most of the truth and stuck by the cover story .

You do not have to stick to the story line.

Bring in the police, the press, the king himself, and I shall stick to my story .

Jay stuck to that story until Sunday morning.

He had stuck to his story , that they'd quarrelled at the dance and he had left early.

throat

Did he want me to eat shit or the words stick in my throat and choke me?

Now he toppled over backward with the weapon stuck upright in his throat .

Swallow, something sticking in my throat .

It stuck in my throat and I had to cough and cough to dislodge it.

While the arrows still seemed stuck in their throats they danced to right and left with short, shuffling steps.

The breath was stuck in her throat and her mouth felt dry.

thumb

He stuck one thumb out when the car was still a few hundred yards away.

Steinkamp swam up to it and stuck her thumbs in her ears, seemingly making a childish face at it.

As he stuck a sceptical thumb into a tub of rock-hard Camembert, he knew he was facing a first-class mess.

The next morning, all bandaged up, I stuck out my thumb and caught a ride to Tay Ninh.

I stuck my thumb in the top, pulled it off, and offered her the bottle.

tongue

Stuart sighed and Linda Paterson stuck out her tongue at him.

Mitchell turned around lust in time to see her stick her tongue out at him.

With her eyes still crossed, she stuck her tongue out and tried to curl it upwards.

He told him to stick out his tongue and held his hand.

She stuck out her tongue . ` Anyway, emergency medicine is great stuff.

If children on the programme stick their tongues out, we don't condemn it.

Like a child sticking out its tongue , they seemed to be saying, I know something you don't know.

As I watched it soar over the crossbar,.Jamir stuck his tongue out in ridicule and blew a raspberry.

traffic

Slachman's stuck in traffic , but I can just about fit you in.

Then his cab got stuck in traffic , for which I thanked the Lord.

It follows torrential rain yesterday, which flooded roads, and caused chaos as hundreds of commuters were stuck in traffic jams.

When you're stuck in traffic with Libby Purves on radio.

Congestion makes things worse: cars stuck in traffic jams pollute three times as much as those on the open road.

Says he was stuck in traffic .

wall

I liked that picture so Marie let me cut it out and stick it on the wall .

He spotted another phalanx of flies stuck to the walls .

How do I know that letter you stuck in the wall really was the Professor's?

Corbeling is where brick sticks out of the wall at the top of the building.

His face was stuck to the wall .

When he managed to see again there was a crossbow bolt sticking in the wall just by his ear.

My plants look real healthy in the sun and the photos Marie's stuck on the wall are all shiny.

A copy has been stuck up on the wall in the Indymedia office.

■ VERB

decide

So I have decided to stick my neck out and to make some predictions for the next 30 years.

Gast decided to stick around at his own expense and film as much as he could with the fighters.

In the end, however, Mosbacher decided to stick with the traditional head count.

At the time, Colavitti decided to stick with aerospace, and the night school degree seemed just a momentary departure.

Rebelling against the manager that formed them, the girls decided to stick together and make their own choices.

I decided to stick to my own boyfriend problem and leave others well enough alone.

Johnson was entranced by the $ 175-per-week salary and decided to stick around.

Mrs Reagan decided that she would stick to her original decision.

get

Negotiators got stuck over questions such as how this market was to be monitored and regulated without corruption.

Finally I got the ax to stick from ten paces.

I guess Waldo must have been the codename for CorelDRAW 2 during development and it got stuck in the code.

She got stuck with a 75.

You have got just to find some place and stay there and get stuck in.

There is no computable means of deciding which Turing machines will get stuck in this way.

The young, less likely to vote, get stuck with the bill.

Facilities director Rick Harris said he stopped elevator service to make sure no one would get stuck in the cars.

seem

He seemed to have been stuck in this shabby, overheated room for days.

President, because none of his mistakes ever seemed to stick to him.

I ask you. Seem to be stuck here for a week or so.

Unlike the Republicans, Clinton seems to be sticking to the operational center.

But once they're there, once you've given them headroom, they seem pretty determined to stick around.

But few of us seem capable of sticking to them all the time, in every situation, for ever.

He tried again to look at Jenny, but his eyes seemed to stick somewhere round her neckline.

The shop seems stuck in time.

tend

We tended to stick together too, although no-one accused us of being colonists.

When particles of dirt land on its damp surface, they tend to stick more than on a dry surface.

The Black girls tended to stick together, but me, I mix with everyone, I don't care.

Water molecules carry an electric charge and tend to stick to one another.

When ions floating in the water happen to bump into the hard surface of the crystal, they tend to stick .

PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

be (caught) in a cleft stick

Now the local authorities are caught in a cleft stick, hostages to their own political process.

So the developing countries are caught in a cleft stick.

be (caught/locked/stuck) in a time warp

be (stuck) between a rock and a hard place

be stuck for sth

Most of what they accused him of was true, and Wyden was stuck for an answer.

Antony for once was stuck for words.

I was stuck for an answer.

be stuck in a groove

be stuck on sb

Jane's really stuck on the new boy in her class.

But my mind was stuck on this Martian theory.

Co. was stuck on Santa Cruz.

He must, of course, be stuck on the page where I left him.

I was afraid I would be stuck on the medicine for ever.

Now I was stuck on my northernmost hang-up.

They were stuck on the outside like cheerleaders.

be stuck with sb

All four of them were stuck with us!

Chutra and I were stuck with each other like binary stars.

He sat thinking how he was stuck with her, how there was no privacy in this house for emergency situations.

I suppose I was stuck with him, like it or not.

If an organism has haemoglobin, it is stuck with it.

If she was stuck with wanting a man whose background and conditioning were alien to her, then that was her problem.

Now they are stuck with those higher prices.

Rosenberg was stuck with 400 shirts that cost $ 4 each.

be stuck with sth

We're renting the house, so we're stuck with this ugly wallpaper.

All four of them were stuck with us!

Chutra and I were stuck with each other like binary stars.

He sat thinking how he was stuck with her, how there was no privacy in this house for emergency situations.

I suppose I was stuck with him, like it or not.

If an organism has haemoglobin, it is stuck with it.

If she was stuck with wanting a man whose background and conditioning were alien to her, then that was her problem.

Now they are stuck with those higher prices.

Rosenberg was stuck with 400 shirts that cost $ 4 each.

be stuck/held fast

A character who is held fast can not move or fight, and is treated as prone.

Balor was struggling and writhing, but his limbs were held fast and only his thick, shapeless body could move.

Persephone sprang into her arms and was held fast there.

She tried to pull her hand free, but it was held fast .

She tried to struggle, but she was held fast .

carrot and stick

Current government strategy on unemployment has been described fairly aptly as being the carrot and stick approach.

Headquarters motivates managers to meet targets in time-honoured style: carrot and stick.

Like a biochemical carrot and stick, these systems generate pleasurable or painful feelings that powerfully guide behavior.

Much of the success was fuelled by the multinationals responding to the combination of carrot and stick.

The carrot and stick approach is to do with reward and punishment, incentives and pressures.

The old carrot and stick method of keeping control is now all stick.

Your level of control needs to be high enough so that your carrot and stick power matters and is taken seriously by others.

get stuck in/get stuck into sth

get the wrong end of the stick

Maybe I got the wrong end of the stick. I thought she was leaving him, not the other way round.

keep/stick to the message

put/stick that in your pipe and smoke it

put/stick your head above the parapet

put/stick/get your oar in

I heard him mention something about organs to another guest so I put my oar in and started such a nice conversation.

She was talking to me just now, before you put your oar in.

We were sorting it out quite nicely until you stuck your oar in.

stick out/stand out a mile

stick/poke your nose into sth

No one wants the government sticking its nose into the personal business of citizens.

Or maybe they resented a stranger poking his nose into their affairs?

stick/put etc the knife in/into someone

stick/stand out like a sore thumb

You can't come to the restaurant dressed in jeans. You'd stick out like a sore thumb.

For these reasons feminist values stand out like a sore thumb.

Having a whole batch together should make an odd one stick out like a sore thumb.

Having said that, in some of the bits of Shoreditch I passed through I stuck out like a sore thumb.

I mean, it sticks out like a sore thumb.

There's no cover, and - as happened to me - any stranger sticks out like a sore thumb.

We stand out like sore thumbs.

You stick out like a sore thumb in that ghastly uniform, Charles.

stick/stay in sb's mind

But it stuck in my mind .

I think those types of things stick in children's minds , so I didn't want her there.

It is not surprising that phrases do not stick in the mind .

It must have stuck in her mind , that an honest person might act out of character when severely threatened.

Last year, 7-21, that stays in your mind .

One incident that has always stuck in my mind was when I dove for my foxhole at the opening mortar round.

There are, as always with the work of Ralph Gibson, images that stick in the mind .

Yet the one small doubt stuck in her mind like a burr in tweed.

use/wield the big stick

EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

"What should I do with these?" "Oh, just stick them anywhere."

Stick this note to Chris's computer so he sees it when he gets back.

Clark called him "Mule," because he looked like a pack mule, and the name stuck.

I'm sticking.

I stuck the pictures in a drawer and forgot all about them.

It took hours to stick all these photos in my album.

Paul stuck two pieces of paper together.

Peter was very hot, and his shirt was sticking to his back.

Put some butter on the pan so the cookies don't stick .

She stuck her chewing gum on the bottom of the chair.

She pressed down the flap of the envelope, but it didn't stick .

The doctor had to stick a tube down my throat in order to examine my stomach.

The vase broke into several pieces, but I was able to stick them all back together.

They stuck pins into a map to show where the enemy's camps were.

This cupboard door keeps sticking.

EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS

And marriage developed everywhere to encourage men to stick around their children.

I guess Waldo must have been the codename for CorelDRAW 2 during development and it got stuck in the code.

It was only a little flurry, but it was wet, clumping gobs of snow that stuck to the windshield.

Mind you, I don't suppose you would really want to stick them in the top of the Christmas pudding either.

Teenagers can not wreak that kind of havoc when they are stuck inside.

The experts avoid sticking their own necks out.

They announced that they wanted to talk to everyone, and they asked everyone to stick around for a while.

II. noun

COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS

■ ADJECTIVE

big

And a big stick comes in useful too.

In place of a big stick , his is an approach that seeks to balance many perspectives on the same situation.

This is the big stick treatment for violent criminals which is traditionally associated with an extreme Right-wing attitude.

Teddy Roosevelt whittled a big stick and beat on em for six years.

Monroe doctrine lives on as Bush wields big stick .

It's called a big stick .

After the big stick came the carrot: he offered to pay my first month's rent at a hostel he knew.

Jones carried the big stick , going 3-for-5 and scoring twice.

long

At Yanto's suggestion they had each gone off and found themselves a long thin stick apiece.

The tourists who were already there had long plastic sticks they were poking down into the fenced area.

Tended by a woman with a long stick .

I poked at its decomposing body with a long driftwood stick , working to turn it over.

It pulled a long curved stick out of a holster.

After breakfast the male inmates went outside to the prison yard for exercises, which included jumping over long bamboo sticks .

From time to time attendants with long sticks would poke and stir to make it burn faster.

old

Maybe I had exaggerated things and Gilly wasn't such a bad old stick after all.

We tie up with an old stick and some rope, and no problem.

Frederick was always such an old stick .

Me, I stick to my old sticks; and I think that the new breed of carbon-fibre rods are characterless.

I knew I was taking some rare old stick mentally, though.

She heard it from that dry old stick , Simpson.

The old carrot and stick method of keeping control is now all stick.

Why hadn't Maxie thought of building a new house there, the old stick in the mud?

shooting

Favourite walking and shooting sticks by the connecting bedroom door.

One woman has brought the blunt ended equivalent of a shooting stick , which turns out not to be needed.

She was sitting on a shooting stick .

stout

The greybeards made a quite unnecessary fuss about this and I was forced to employ my stout stick .

The employment of a stout stick is recommended.

thin

At Yanto's suggestion they had each gone off and found themselves a long thin stick apiece.

They carried thin sticks that may have been riding crops, which they switched against their boots impatiently.

What was that clutter of thin whitish sticks in one hut?

When it is quite dry, use a thin stick or toothpick to draw your pattern on the egg in glue.

In his hands he holds a snuff box, shaped like a small quiver, and a thin stick .

They guide them with the flick of a thin stick or a gentle word.

He was built like a basketball player; tall and as thin as a stick insect.

walking

The pensioner was so angry, he tripped up the mugger with his walking stick and grabbed the book back.

A hand separated itself from the walking stick .

All they will see is the walking stick .

Favourite walking and shooting sticks by the connecting bedroom door.

Milton ward Tories were so impressed by his la-de-da-accent and gold-plated walking stick that they made him social secretary.

Hedgerow briars are best left for walking sticks .

There will be a pole lathe on the go, and the Adams Axeman making walking sticks and baskets.

She looked across at the half-hidden walking stick again.

white

All it tells us is that a man walked through the wood and threw a white stick down.

A neighbor, Boab, helps Sammy paint the white stick he has fashioned from a mop handle.

He said he saw no sign of a white stick until after the accident when it was seen to be folded up.

The heat made her white dress stick to her.

I would feel silly saying the same thing to a white stick !

More wheelchairs but no white sticks tonight.

She now had a collapsible white metal stick she used quite defensively when out walking.

Millions of viewers saw presenter Howard Leader take the tumble wearing dark glasses and clutching a white stick .

wooden

Read in studio A man has been charged after a policeman was stabbed in the eye with a wooden stick .

Like ranks of drummers beating upon skulls with wooden sticks .

The whole squad would line up and hit the new cap's backside with a wooden stick until it became quite painful.

Skewer 2 beef cubes on each wooden stick .

Traditional rural dowsers used wooden sticks to locate underground water.

■ NOUN

celery

Chilli beans Fry one chopped onion and one chopped celery stick in three tablespoons of oil.

cinnamon

Leave to cool and remove the cinnamon stick .

Remove cloves, bay leaves and cinnamon sticks .

Add bay leaves, chili peppers, coriander seed, juniper berries, cinnamon stick , and thyme.

Some recipes suggest adding a cinnamon stick , whole cloves and / or whole allspice.

cocktail

Remove the cocktail sticks from the salmon olives and place the olives on top of the sauce.

For the dragonflies, mould small curved lengths and mark on segments with a cocktail stick .

Roll the fillets up and secure with a cocktail stick .

Roll one rasher around each prune and secure with a cocktail stick . 3.

Mark lines of bandages on to the mummy's limbs and head with a pointed cocktail stick .

Prop up with a cocktail stick from behind if necessary.

Spread the skin side of each slice with the mustard, roll up and secure carefully with cocktail sticks .

Etching - dip a cocktail stick in lemon juice or vinegar and scratch away the colour when the dyed egg is cold.

gear

And between us, the bloody Rugby World Cup kept falling through the seats to knock my hand from the gear stick .

Donna grabbed the gear stick , simultaneously pressing hard on the brake.

In desperation the Minister leaned forward and grabbed the automatic gear stick , throwing it into reverse.

hockey

Piggie involved hitting a wooden wedge with a type of hockey stick .

One looked at her and then fell back heavily, flinging her hockey stick to the side.

Pieces of pine from apple cases became cricket bats, tennis rackets or hockey sticks and gave them endless hours of pleasure.

Dan exclaimed; he had been hit in the jaw with a hockey stick , and his lip had swelled.

insect

To put it another way, ancestors of stick insects that did not resemble sticks did not leave descendants.

Children admiring Living World stick insects .

One of them, anyway - the stick insect couldn't have escaped.

Eggs, caterpillars, chrysalids, stick insects and equipment are available for sale from the showroom.

He was built like a basketball player; tall and as thin as a stick insect .

The initial resemblance of the ancestral stick insect to a stick must have been very remote.

When I was young I was like a stick insect , then at fourteen or fifteen I put on weight.

shift

Guys who love the way a stick shift or a remote feels in their hands.

■ VERB

beat

Buddie had beaten her with a stick until her mouth bled and she could barely stand.

We fought them for control of the garbage mounds by the North River. Beat them off with sticks .

When they could not get money from the machine they beat her with sticks .

My torso and my wrists felt as though Edna had beaten them with sticks .

McSorley lined it up before beating Potvin on the stick side at 18: 23 in the first for a 1-1 tie.

The young suspects then allegedly kicked and punched punched the infant and, allegedly, possibly beat him with a stick .

carry

And he was carrying no thunder-and-fire stick to inflict pain on them.

Throngs of people moved along the sidewalks carrying walking sticks , packages, umbrellas.

Bongwater's Ann Magnuson carries the incandescent incense stick for the even.

They carried thin sticks that may have been riding crops, which they switched against their boots impatiently.

A small Masai boy, carrying two whittled sticks , joins her and they walk together.

Jones carried the big stick , going 3-for-5 and scoring twice.

Burns left the room and returned, carrying a stick .

As standard, every diver carries a light stick , glowing colours moving around a pinnacle that was previously dived at dusk.

hit

They hit me with a stick .

First a student hit the stick and it flew up in the air.

I remember the teacher who hit me with a stick .

Then the teacher put the newspaper on top of the stick , smoothed down the paper and hit the stick.

Because the teacher made the paper smooth before hitting the stick , there was almost no air under the paper.

Then somebody hit him with a stick while he struggled to get loose of all those hands.

Ask one of the students to hit the stick .

Ask the students to guess what will happen if you hit the stick . 3.

hold

He holds up a stick for all to see.

The newspaper does not seem to be heavy enough to hold down the stick .

The boy was making straight for the stone, holding his stick up and making little darting glances all round him.

Hughes held the stick aloft, a coil of silver at its head.

When you go in and out, you feel like somebody is holding a stick ....

He holds his ink stick upright.

He is holding a stick which has feathers attached.

Each Metropolitan held his locust stick in front of him.

move

In addition, the elevator may overbalance so that the force needed to move forwards on the stick is abnormally high.

If this happens, it is important to move the stick forwards sufficiently to ensure that the glider does not re-stall.

As the wing drops and the spin starts, he move forwards on the stick , leaving the rudder applied.

They go on jumping and crawling as the King moves the stick .

As the model rolls from inverted to normal flight, move the throttle stick back to the normal position.

pick

He picks up sticks and sits down to eat them.

With his stomach turning, he picked up a stick , which he jammed into the glove.

She picked up the stick and hurled it, skimming it low over the shallow pools left by the tide.

I scratched the back of my neck, picked up the cue stick , and tried an easy shot.

As last year, bin bags and litter picking sticks will be provided.

He ripped up grass; tore apart moss; picked up pebbles, sticks , and twigs.

place

What happened? 2. Place the stick back on the table and cover it with the newspaper.

poke

They poke burning sticks at me.

Two small boys trapped a crab, repeatedly poking it with a stick until it went belly up and played dead.

It will then learn to poke sticks in termite mounds when it is hungry.

pull

He kept pulling on the stick , then swung away and made to carry it off.

The demonstration may be repeated by pulling the stick out 4-5 inches more.

It pulled a long curved stick out of a holster.

Obviously, you pull the cyclic stick back to lower the tail and impart a rearwards force to stop the forwards movement.

He raised the gun to the back of the Captain's head, imploring him to pull back on the stick .

throw

The man threw more sticks and it jumped again, ecstatic, diving and swimming, in and out.

He can hit a thrown ball with a stick of wood.

Male speaker Hundreds of rioters were throwing sticks and stones and shooting.

He turned around, threw away the stick , and walked back towards the hospital.

He had thrown the blood-covered stick into the fire, then washed himself and his clothes.

Finally he stood upright, cracked his back, and threw the stick into the trash.

It was cut off, abruptly. probably Simon had thrown a stick for him.

use

Children, especially boys, will construct a fake gun using anything from sticks to a piece of toast.

We used a stick or shovel to hit the wire and break the strands apart.

To tell the truth, I continued to use the stick for longer than was strictly necessary.

Most of the time, though, we used sticks that my sisters collected from the woods.

When it is quite dry, use a thin stick or toothpick to draw your pattern on the egg in glue.

Because he insisted on using a stick shift.

Similarly, a child at play may use a stick as an aeroplane or a settee as a car.

Single bamboo canes are also used as rhythm sticks in many parts of the world, including Polynesia and the Amazon Basin.

walk

He walked with a stick , but sometimes he would throw it away and skip.

Throngs of people moved along the sidewalks carrying walking sticks , packages, umbrellas.

It walked with two sticks . ` Ready?

A walking stick is good for balance in the water and on the arduous grades.

Made by Brigg Umbrellas, with a handle matching one of the Brigg walking sticks in the King's wardrobe.

Toasting their successful ascent to the summit, she lifts her flask in the air, and father waves his walking stick .

With the aid of a silver-mounted walking stick , she was limping; yet her body was still very straight.

Two walking sticks used to hurt his pride.

wave

Three men stood in the entrance of the courtyard, waving sticks .

Two shepherds took off after him, waving their sticks .

Toasting their successful ascent to the summit, she lifts her flask in the air, and father waves his walking stick .

wield

Monroe doctrine lives on as Bush wields big stick .

Shields fired when Kao, who was drunk, advanced at him wielding a stick , authorities said.

Apart from wielding the stick of trade sanctions - a worrying measure - the main option will be the carrot of cash transfers.

PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

be (caught) in a cleft stick

Now the local authorities are caught in a cleft stick, hostages to their own political process.

So the developing countries are caught in a cleft stick.

be (caught/locked/stuck) in a time warp

be (stuck) between a rock and a hard place

be stuck for sth

Most of what they accused him of was true, and Wyden was stuck for an answer.

Antony for once was stuck for words.

I was stuck for an answer.

be stuck on sb

Jane's really stuck on the new boy in her class.

But my mind was stuck on this Martian theory.

Co. was stuck on Santa Cruz.

He must, of course, be stuck on the page where I left him.

I was afraid I would be stuck on the medicine for ever.

Now I was stuck on my northernmost hang-up.

They were stuck on the outside like cheerleaders.

be stuck with sb

All four of them were stuck with us!

Chutra and I were stuck with each other like binary stars.

He sat thinking how he was stuck with her, how there was no privacy in this house for emergency situations.

I suppose I was stuck with him, like it or not.

If an organism has haemoglobin, it is stuck with it.

If she was stuck with wanting a man whose background and conditioning were alien to her, then that was her problem.

Now they are stuck with those higher prices.

Rosenberg was stuck with 400 shirts that cost $ 4 each.

be stuck with sth

We're renting the house, so we're stuck with this ugly wallpaper.

All four of them were stuck with us!

Chutra and I were stuck with each other like binary stars.

He sat thinking how he was stuck with her, how there was no privacy in this house for emergency situations.

I suppose I was stuck with him, like it or not.

If an organism has haemoglobin, it is stuck with it.

If she was stuck with wanting a man whose background and conditioning were alien to her, then that was her problem.

Now they are stuck with those higher prices.

Rosenberg was stuck with 400 shirts that cost $ 4 each.

be stuck/held fast

A character who is held fast can not move or fight, and is treated as prone.

Balor was struggling and writhing, but his limbs were held fast and only his thick, shapeless body could move.

Persephone sprang into her arms and was held fast there.

She tried to pull her hand free, but it was held fast .

She tried to struggle, but she was held fast .

carrot and stick

Current government strategy on unemployment has been described fairly aptly as being the carrot and stick approach.

Headquarters motivates managers to meet targets in time-honoured style: carrot and stick.

Like a biochemical carrot and stick, these systems generate pleasurable or painful feelings that powerfully guide behavior.

Much of the success was fuelled by the multinationals responding to the combination of carrot and stick.

The carrot and stick approach is to do with reward and punishment, incentives and pressures.

The old carrot and stick method of keeping control is now all stick.

Your level of control needs to be high enough so that your carrot and stick power matters and is taken seriously by others.

get stuck in/get stuck into sth

get the wrong end of the stick

Maybe I got the wrong end of the stick. I thought she was leaving him, not the other way round.

keep/stick to the message

put/stick that in your pipe and smoke it

put/stick your head above the parapet

put/stick/get your oar in

I heard him mention something about organs to another guest so I put my oar in and started such a nice conversation.

She was talking to me just now, before you put your oar in.

We were sorting it out quite nicely until you stuck your oar in.

stick out/stand out a mile

stick/poke your nose into sth

No one wants the government sticking its nose into the personal business of citizens.

Or maybe they resented a stranger poking his nose into their affairs?

stick/put etc the knife in/into someone

stick/stand out like a sore thumb

You can't come to the restaurant dressed in jeans. You'd stick out like a sore thumb.

For these reasons feminist values stand out like a sore thumb.

Having a whole batch together should make an odd one stick out like a sore thumb.

Having said that, in some of the bits of Shoreditch I passed through I stuck out like a sore thumb.

I mean, it sticks out like a sore thumb.

There's no cover, and - as happened to me - any stranger sticks out like a sore thumb.

We stand out like sore thumbs.

You stick out like a sore thumb in that ghastly uniform, Charles.

stick/stay in sb's mind

But it stuck in my mind .

I think those types of things stick in children's minds , so I didn't want her there.

It is not surprising that phrases do not stick in the mind .

It must have stuck in her mind , that an honest person might act out of character when severely threatened.

Last year, 7-21, that stays in your mind .

One incident that has always stuck in my mind was when I dove for my foxhole at the opening mortar round.

There are, as always with the work of Ralph Gibson, images that stick in the mind .

Yet the one small doubt stuck in her mind like a burr in tweed.

use/wield the big stick

EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

a walking stick

EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS

Stick insects look like sticks and so are saved from being eaten by birds.

He didn't half go into him with his stick .

He dipped the oil stick in again.

Julitis disgustedly cleaned it frorn her shoe with a stick .

The hon. Gentleman has got the wrong end of the stick about how they work.

Using his thick bill, he played with the leaves, sticks, and grass stems at the edge of his nest.

Longman DOCE5 Extras English vocabulary.      Дополнительный английский словарь Longman DOCE5.