Forms: 1 sticca, 3–7 sticke, 3–5 stikke, 4–5 stykke, 4–6 stik, styke, 5 stike, 5–6 styk, stycke, 6 styck, stykk, 6– stick, [OE. sticca masc. = ? OS. stekko (Gallée), MDu. stecke masc., fem. also stec masc., neut. (mod.Du. stek fem.), OHG. stecko (MHG. stecke, mod.G. stecken):—OTeut. type *stikkon- (a synonymous *stikon- is represented by the parallel forms OHG. stehho, MHG. steche masc.; cf. also ON. stika fem., stick, yardstick, kerta-stika candlestick, MSw. stikka, mod. Sw. sticka fem. stick, chip), f. Teut. root *stik- to pierce, prick: see STICK v.]
I. A rod or staff of wood.
1. A short piece of wood, esp. a piece cut and shaped for a special purpose, usually with defining word indicating its use, as in bung-stick, POTSTICK, SETTING-STICK, tooth-stick, etc.
In OE. also in the specific applications ‘tent-peg’ and ‘pointer of a dial’: see Bosworth-Toller.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 386. Ʒenim tweʓen … sticcan federecgede & writ on æʓðerne sticcan … an pater noster.
c. 1450. Bk. Curtasye, 94, in Babees Bk. (1868), 180. Clense not thi tethe at mete sittande, Withe knyfe ne stre, styk ne wande.
1707. Mortimer, Husb. (1721), I. 334. The next Morning pluck out the Bung-stick or Plug.
1913. M. W. H. Beech, in Man, XIII. 5. [It] can be used as either the female, i.e., the passive stick of the fire drill or for the male or active stick, the mugumu.
† b. A piece of wood used as a tally. Also WHITE STICK. Obs. as specific sense.
c. 1380, c. 1400. [see WHITE STICK].
1500. God Speed Plough (E.E.T.S.), 30. And to the kyngis courte we moste it lede, And our payment shalbe a styk of A bough.
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb., § 141. Yf he [the husbandman] canne not wryte, let hym nycke the defautes vppon a stycke, and shewe his bayely.
1664. Marq. Newcastle, in M’ness Newcastle, Sociable Lett., To Author. Each Tavern-token, Nick’d Sticks for Merchants [etc.].
1737. Pope, Hor. Epist., I. i. 84. To him who notches sticks at Westminster.
1784. Cowper, Tiroc., 559. Th’ indented stick, that loses day by day Notch after notch.
1846–8. Lowell, Biglow P., Ser. I. ix. 61. Wy, into Bellers’s we notched the votes down on three sticks.
c. Mining. (See quot. 1899.)
1708. J. C., Compl. Collier (1845), 37. The … chief Banck’s-Man … takes an Account … by Sticks or Pieces of Wood.
1797. J. Curr, Coal Viewer, 20. Nogs and boxes for mottys, or sticks, to distinguish the Corf, 0. 0. 6.
1899. Dickinson & Prevost, Cumbld. Gloss., Stick, the wooden token whereon was branded the distinguishing number of the hewer in the coal pit.
d. The (sixty or sixty-four) sticks of fate: the apparatus employed in a Chinese method of divination.
c. 1850[?]. Lady Dufferin (title of poem), Consulting the ‘Sticks of Fate.’
1860. Cobbold, Pict. Chinese, 14.
1884. Friend, Flowers & Flower-lore, I. 268.
2. A slender branch or twig of a tree or shrub esp. when cut or broken off. Now rare.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 142. Læt yrnan þat blod on grennne [sic] sticcan hæslenne.
c. 1200. Vices & Virtues, 135. Ne lat hie nawht ðe hande pleiȝende mid stikke, ne mid strawe—nis þat non god tocne of ripe manne.
13[?]. K. Alis., 4425 (Laud MS.). Þe speres crakeþ also þicke So on hegge sere stykke.
c. 1369. Chaucer, Dethe Blaunche, 423. So grete trees … of … fourty fifty fedme lengthe Clene withoute bowgh or stikke.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), vii. 25. Þe preste … lays þerapon spiceries … and stikkes of þe iunipre tree.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., I. ii. 33. He that breakes a sticke of Glosters groue, Shall loose his head for his presumption.
1620. Quarles, Feast for Worms, K 4. Thou, in whose distrustfull brest Despayre hath brought in sticks to build her nest.
1735. Dict. Polygraph., s.v. Verdegris, This [crystallised verdegrease] commonly comes from Holland … on sticks in form like our sugar-candy. To be good, these crystals must be … as free from sticks as possible.
b. pl. Pieces of cut or broken branches, also pieces of cut and chopped wood, used as fuel.
c. 1200. Ormin, 8651. & her I gaddre stikkess twa … To ʓarrkenn þatt to fode.
c. 1300. Havelok, 914. Stickes kan ich breken and kraken, And kindlen ful wel a fyr.
1382. Wyclif, Numb. xv. 32. Thei fonden a man gederynge stikkis in the holi day.
c. 1450. St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 807. Stikkes to a fyre þai gadird fast.
1653. Walton, Angler, xi[xvi]. 209. Come, Hostis,… lay a few more sticks on the fire.
1737. Pope, Hor. Epist., II. ii. 242. Such large-acred men … Buy every stick of wood that lends them heat.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., II. 117. Seeking … her harmless sticks from hedges hung with rime.
1902. A. Symons, Stud. Prose & Verse (1904), 251. Mr. Phillips has laid the paper, the sticks, and the coals neatly in the grate, where they remain, in undisturbed order, awaiting the flame that never wakens them into light or heat.
† c. A piece of wood from the hearth, a brand. Stick of fire, a firebrand. Obs.
1538. Elyot, Dict., Torris, a stycke of fyre.
1607. Dekker, Jests to make Merry, 33. Your Glimerer, shees vp in the morning betweene 5 or 6 of the clock … and with a black brand in her hand…. If she but perceiue a light … she desires to haue leaue to kindle her stick.
d. A twiggy bough or long rod stuck in the ground for a plant to ‘run’ upon, more definitely bean-stick, pea-stick.
1577. Googe, trans. Heresbach’s Husb., 33. There are two sortes of Pease, the one sort … runneth vp vppon stickes.
1741. Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Phaseolus, [The Scarlet Bean] being supported either with Sticks or Strings, grows up to a good Height.
3. A stem or thick branch of a tree cut and trimmed and used as timber for building, fencing, etc.; a stave, stake. Also fig. Cf. sense 6.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Nun’s Pr. T., 28. A yeerd she hadde, enclosed al aboute With stikkes.
1577. Googe, trans. Heresbach’s Husb., 41 b. They vse a greater Sythe with a long Suath, and fenced with a crooked frame of stickes, wherwith with both their hands they cut downe the Corne, and laye it in Swathes.
1644. [see HEDGE sb. 6].
1707. Fountainhall, Decis. (1761), II. 408. The pursuer had no inclosure … neither was their a stick of planting or hedging therein.
b. Every stick, the whole materials of a building: used (sometimes advb.) to emphasize total destruction or ruin. Also negatively: (to leave) not a stick.
1338. R. Brunne, Chron. (1725), 113. Carro, Lodelow toun,… Dunford & Maltone, Steuen wan þam ilk a stik.
a. 1400–50. Wars Alex., 1311. Þus þe strenth [of Alexander’s towers] ilk stike was in a stounde wasted.
c. 1450. Brut, 577. Thai brake vp al þe lede of the halle and of þe toures, and brent vp euery stykke.
1557–71. A. Jenkinson, Voy. & Trav. (Hakl. Soc.), II. 339. One of ye dukes howses … was consomed with fyer and not one stick left.
1596. Spenser, State Irel., Wks. (Globe), 616/2. Of all townes, castels, fortes, bridges, and habitations, they left not any stick standing.
1625. in Foster, Eng. Factories India (1909), III. 80. The Sultan suffaringe not a sticke to bee puld downe out of aney house.
c. Similarly in alliterative expressions, esp. (every, both) stick and stone, stick and stour dial., stick and stow Sc. and north. (cf. stab and stow, STAB sb.2), stick and stock.
c. 1436. Brut, 583. Þe Calisers … bare lxiii clene away, Euery stikke & stone, & lafte not ther one log.
1459. Sir J. Fastolf, Will, in Paston Lett., I. 462. That thanne the said John Paston shulde doo poule down the said mansion and every stone and stikke therof.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 232 b. [He] to declare hym selfe [free from the assumption of kingly power], was fain to pul down his hous sticke and stone euen to ye plain grounde.
1600. Fairfax, Tasso, IX. ix. Godfrey meane-while to ruine sticke and stone Of this faire towne, with battrie sore, assaies.
1611. Beaum. & Fl., Knt. Burn. Pestle, II. i. Shee swore, neuer to marry, But such a one, whose mighty arme could carry … Her bodily away through sticke and stone.
1792. Wolcot (P. Pindar), Lyric Ep. Ld. Macartney, xxxvii. Wks. 1816, II. 355. For troops … May, like wild meteors, pour into mine east, And leave my palace neither stick nor stone.
1904. Athenæum, 27 Aug., 271/3. Every stick and stone of Beau Nash’s Pump Room [at Bath] has long since passed away.
c. 1450. St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 7177. Þe place was brynt, styk and stoure, Abbay and house.
1877. N. W. Linc. Gloss., Stick and stour,… Often used to signify all a person’s goods and chattels. ‘They’ve sell’d him up, stick an’ stour.’
1786. Burns, To W. Simpson, Postscr. ix. Folk thought them ruin’d stick-an-stowe.
1862. C. C. Robinson, Dial. Leeds, 422. A nasty, thratching hussey!—shoo wants bundiling art o’t’ street stick an’ stow.
1880. Baring-Gould, Mehalah, xii. (1884), 161. Cousin Charles is not the man to see his relatives sold up stick and stock.
d. Stick and rag: see quot.
1911. Encycl. Brit., XXI. 786/1. Fibrous plaster is given by plasterers the suggestive name ‘stick and rag,’… for it is composed of plaster laid upon a backing of canvas stretched on wood.
e. Over the sticks: in steeplechasing and hurdle-racing.
1898. T. Haydon, Sporting Reminisc., 67. The quality of the competitors, both in flat races and ‘over the sticks’ was of the highest class.
4. A long and relatively slender piece of wood, whether in natural form or shaped with tools, cut or broken of a convenient length for handling.
Cleft stick: see CLEFT ppl. a.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Can. Yeom. Prol. & T., 712. In his hand he bar An holwe stikke … In the ende of which an Ounce … Of siluer lemaille put was as bifore.
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb., § 21. And in his other hande he hath a forked stycke a yarde longe, and with his forked stycke he putteth the wede from hym.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 30 b. Whiche by theyr enchauntementes made serpentes of styckes.
1590. Lucar, Lucarsolace, I. iv. 11. Take vp your Geometricall table,… leauing an arrow or sticke set vpright in the point of grounde directly vnder B.
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacræ, III. i. § 17. So in the sight of a stick, when under water, the representation of it by the sense to imagination is as crooked.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 561. A Kettle, slung between two poles upon a stick transverse.
1889. Conan Doyle, Micah Clarke, v. Like the turnip on a stick at which we used to throw at the fairs.
b. A staff, club, cudgel used as a weapon.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XII. 14. Al-þough þow stryke me with þi staffe with stikke or with ȝerde.
1547. Boorde, Brev. Health (1870), 84. For the Feuer lurden … Take me a stycke or wan[d] of a yerde of length and more … and with it anoyot the bake.
1605. Shaks., Lear, II. iv. 125. She knopt ’em o’th’ coxcombs with a sticke, and cryed downe wantons, downe.
1664. in Verney Mem. (1904), II. 214. [If the] Whelps meddle with Sheepe, they must be … whipped soundly, but not beaten with Stickes.
1847. W. C. L. Martin, The Ox, 139/2. Contusions, and the blows of cattle-drivers, merciless in the use of their sticks about the heads of the poor beasts.
1850. A. M‘Gilvray, Poems & Songs, 69.
| His drunken, stupid, thoughtless tricks, | |
| Ha’e cost him many a crown; | |
| For he has laid, with their own sticks, | |
| The strongest watchmen down. |
fig. phr. (U.S.) 1848. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., Sharp stick. He’s after him with a sharp stick; i.e. he’s determined to have satisfaction or revenge.
1871. Trenton State Sentinel, 26 May, in Schele de Vere, Americanisms, 631. We are pleased to see that the New York Tribune is still after Senators Carpenter, Conkling and others, with a very sharp stick, for [etc.].
c. (Chiefly the stick.) A beating with a stick. To eat stick: see EAT v. 2 d.
1856. Miss Yonge, Daisy Chain, I. viii. Come in, ye bad girls, or I’ll give you the stick.
1884. Sir S. St. John, Hayti, iii. 81. The productiveness of the north [of Hayti] was founded on the liberal application of the stick.
1886. ‘Maxwell Gray,’ Silence Dean Maitland, I. v. 125. He’ll do what he’s told now without the stick.
1892. Mrs. H. Ward, David Grieve, I. iv. Mak her behave … She’ll want a stick takken to her, soon, I can see.
d. = WALKING-STICK.
1620. E. Blount’s Horæ Subs., 33. Some had rather bee lame … of a legge, then lose the grace of carrying a French sticke.
1792. Charlotte Smith, Desmond, II. 285. I tapped at the old, thick, carved door with my stick.
1892. Rider Haggard, Nada the Lily, xviii. 145. We went on in silence, the king leaning on my shoulder as on a stick.
e. A rod of dignity or office, a baton; also the bearer of such a stick. Cf. GOLD STICK, WHITE STICK.
1688. Lond. Gaz., 22 Oct., 7. He had the Honour to be in Waiting upon the King with the Stick.
1833. Hood, Publ. Dinner, 14. Twelve sticks come attending A stick of a Chairman.
1876. Voyle & Stevenson, Milit. Dict., 409/2. Stick, Silver, the field officer of the life guards, when on duty, is called silver stick.
1892. Huxley, in L. Huxley, Life (1900), II. 328. Then waiting about while the various ‘sticks’ were delivered.
1897. Westm. Gaz., 25 June, 4/1. One of the ‘Sticks’ now doing duty at Buckingham Palace.
f. Basket-making. (See quot. 1910.)
1907. Jrnl. Soc. Arts, 11 Jan., 190/1. A dog or commander for straightening the sticks.
1910. Encycl. Brit., III. 482/1. Rods … known as ‘sticks,’ are used to form the rigid framework of the bottoms and lids of square work.
g. In Candlemaking, the rod to which the wicks are attached in order to be dipped: = BROACH sb. 2 b. Hence, the candles made at one dipping.
1711. Act 10 Anne c. 26 § 106. Every Chandler … shall … declare … the Number of Sticks which he designs to make … and also the Sizes of the Candles whereof each Stick is to consist.
1751. Chambers’ Cycl., s.v. Candle, The workman … takes two sticks [ed. 1727 rods], or broches, at a time, strung with the proper number of wicks.
h. The rod of a sky-rocket (see quot. 1886).
1651. J. White, Rich Cabinet (1677), 83. Rockets whose sticks are longer than the staffe.
1792. T. Paine, Lett. to Addressers Proclam., 4. As he rose like a rocket, he fell like the stick.
1848. Alb. Smith, Chr. Tadpole, xxiv. 218. You’ll go off like a regular rocket—all stars and no stick.
1886. Encycl. Brit., XX. 136/2. The stick of the sky-rocket serves the purpose of guiding and balancing it in its flight.
5. spec. in various games.
a. A staff used for striking or pushing, as in Hockey; also applied to a billiard cue, a golf club, or the like.
1674. Cotton, Compl. Gamester (1680), 25. (Billiards) He that removes the Port with his Stick when he strikes his Ball, and thereby prevents his Adversaries Ball from passing, loseth an end.
1726. Art & Myst. Mod. Gaming, 109. They had Drawers, with Lock and Key, made for each of them to put their Sticks into, in the Billiard Room…. When R came afterwards to play with the Stick, B beat him.
1857. H. B. Farnie, Golfer’s Man., in Golfiana Misc. (1887), 134. We shall, therefore, take the clubs seriatim … and explain, in each case, what constitutes a good stick.
1896–7. Rules of Hockey (ed. 12), 21. The sticks shall have no metal fittings whatever, and no sharp edges.
b. Hence in Hockey, Sticks, the word used by the umpire in declaring a breach of rule committed by improperly handling the stick; a breach of rule of this kind.
1896–7. Rules of Hockey (ed. 12), 26. Except so far as Rule 14 applies to ‘sticks,’ for which a ‘bully’ only to be allowed. Ibid., 33. ‘Sticks’ should be given, if a player’s stick is above his shoulder after hitting or missing the ball.
c. Cricket. pl. The stumps of a wicket, the wickets. rare in sing. unless with qualifying word, as midile stick.
Between the sticks, at the wickets, batting, ‘in.’ Behind the sticks, keeping the wicket or acting as wicket-keeper.
1862. Baily’s Mag., Oct., 200. They were … ten hours between the sticks—averaging 1 hour at the wicket, and 50 runs per man.
1882. Daily Tel., 19 May, 2/7. Mr. Trevor came in, but having added a couple [of runs], his sticks were disturbed by Palmer.
1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 28 April, 11/2. It was curious to see Blackham anywhere in the field except behind the sticks. Ibid. (1892), 2 July, 6/2. Jackson played across at a delivery … and had his stick disturbed.
d. pl. The staves used for throwing in the game of Aunt Sally; also used for the game itself.
184[?]. D. Jerrold, Men of Char. (1851), 273. Next, he must have at least a pennyworth of sticks: he may knock down a tobacco-box.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, II. xx. 197. The splendid young dandies who were strolling about the course, and enjoying themselves at the noble diversion of Sticks.
6. A timber-tree, also a tree-trunk when cut for timber; more fully stick of timber. Cf. sense 3.
1748. Anson’s Voy., I. v. 54. The Carpenters were sent into the woods, to endeavor to find a stick proper for a foremast.
1866. Treas. Bot., 220/2. [Carapa guianensis] Its timber … is obtainable in sticks, fifty feet long by fifteen inches square.
1878. Jefferies, Gamekeeper at Home, 38. The edge of a fir plantation where lies a fallen ‘stick’ of timber.
7. Naut. A mast or portion of a mast; also a yard. The sticks, the masts and yards. To up stick(s (slang), to set up a boat’s mast. (lit. and fig.)
1802. Naval Chron., VIII. 517. She has not a stick standing.
1819. Byron, Juan, II. xxxix. But with a leak, and not a stick of mast, Nor rag of canvas, what could they expect?
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, xlvi. A raking broadside … brought the sticks about their ears.
1845. J. Coulter, Adv. in Pacific, vii. 88. So we ‘up stick,’ that is, shipped our mast, made sail, and … brought our … whale alongside the ship.
c. 1860. H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 76. Topsail yards … are made in one stick.
1888. W. Clark Russell, Death Ship, I. 286. To have nothing to do with her or me, but to bear a hand and ‘up sticks.’
1893. H. M. Doughty, Wherry in Wendish Lands, 76. We could see the mast, a very strong stick, whip with the weight.
II. Transferred uses.
8. A piece of material rolled, molded, or cut for convenience of use into a long and slender form like that of a stick: a. of rolled cinnamon bark; b. of sweetstuff; c. of glass; d. of lac or sealing-wax; e. of various other substances (see quots.).
a. a. 1460. [see CINNAMON 1].
1594. Gd. Huswife’s Handmaid Kitchin, 3 b. A litle sticke of Sinamon.
1615. Markham, Eng. Housew., 73. To make most Artificiall Cinamon stickes.
a. 1777. in Jrnl. Friends’ Hist. Soc. (1914), Oct., 188. Put in a stick of Cinnamon.
b. 1611. [see LIQUORICE].
1862. Thackeray, Philip, xxviii. She bought pink sticks of barley-sugar for the young ones.
1913. Little Bk. Confect., 39. Cocoa Sticks…. Cut into three inch sticks and bake.
c. 1683. Digby’s Chym. Secrets, 19. Stir the Matter well with a stick of Glass.
1879. Encycl. Brit., IX. 348/2. A young girl sits by a jet of flame, holding in her hand a stick of prepared glass.
d. 1662. J. Davies, trans. Mandelslo’s Trav., 27. The Indians give it [lacque] what colour they please, black, red, green, yellow, &c. And make it into sticks to seal Letters withall.
1746. Phil. Trans., XLIV. 28. A Stick of the best black Sealing-wax.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 1097. In forming the round sticks of sealing-wax … [the pieces are] rolled out upon a warm marble slab…. The oval sticks … are cast in moulds.
e. 1753. Chambers, Cycl., Suppl. s.v. Lycium, The Dutch … form it into twisted sticks, which they sell to the painters in water colours.
1836. J. F. Davis, Chinese, II. 135. The extreme carelessness with which burning paper and lighted sticks of incense are left about their combustible dwellings.
1844. Fownes, Chem., 131. A stick of phosphorus held in the air always appears to emit a whitish smoke.
1848. Ronalds & Richardson, Knapp’s Chem. Technol., I. 224. Producing consecutively … flowers of sulphur … and sticks of sulphur.
1862. Miller, Elem. Chem., Org., 671. Sticks of potash.
1882. W. J. Christy, Joints used by Builders, 184. A stick of the metal [solder] must be fused at the same time and allowed to drop upon them.
1884. F. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 86. Dissolve a stick of nitrate of silver in … water.
1891. Pall Mall Gaz., 21 Dec., 1/3. ‘It is a kind of grease that we keep in sticks.’ (Aside, to an attendant: ‘Just go and get a stick of paint.’)
9. The stem of a culinary plant when trimmed for use, e.g., a root-stem of horse-radish; a root of celery with its blanched leaf-stems; a leaf-stem of rhubarb; a young shoot of asparagus.
a. 1756. Mrs. Haywood, New Present (1771), 53. A stick of horse-radish.
1872. Calverley, Fly Leaves (1903), 14. To watch bronzed men and maidens crunch The sounding celery-stick.
1877. S. Hibberd, Amateur’s Kitchen Gard., 159. A plentiful supply of early sticks [of rhubarb].
1882. W. Early, Profit. Market Gard., 95. A bundle of celery, from eight to sixteen sticks.
1884. Sutton’s Culture Veget. & Fl. (1885), 8. [Asparagus.] It is a matter of management merely, whether the sticks be blanched to the very tip, or [etc.].
10. Applied to various implements, either of the shape of a stick, or serving purposes for which a stick was originally used.
† a. A spoon. Obs.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., III. 4. Nim ðry sticcan fulle on niht nihstiʓ.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 370. Þe on ber ase þauh hit were a letuarie, þe oðer ber enne sticke of gode gold. Vre Lefdi nome mid te sticke & dude iðe ones muðe þerof.
† b. A utensil for sprinkling holy water; more fully holy water stick. = ASPERGILLUM.
1415, 1552. [see HOLY WATER 2].
c. 1450. Reg. Vestments, etc. St. Andrews, in Maitl. Club Misc., III. 203. Item ane haly wattyr fat of siluer with ane stik of the same for solemnit festis.
1543. Invent. R. Wardr. Scot. (1815), 112. Item ane halie watter fate with the stik of silver.
c. A support for a candle, a candlestick.
c. 1540. in Trans. Lond. & M’sex Archæol. Soc., IV. 372. One styke of syluer p’sell gilt for the holy candell.
1832. Disraeli, Cont. Fleming, I. xii. 118. Many tall white candles, in golden sticks, illuminated the sacred table.
1895. Church Q. Rev., April, 253. The candles standing straight in their sticks.
d. = Composing-stick: see COMPOSING vbl. sb. 2. Stick of letter(s, a stickful of type.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, xx. ¶ 3. The Face of a Stick of Letter. Ibid. The whole Stick of Letters … are screwzed together. Ibid., xxii. 332. With a Riglet fitted to the Stick, he presses the Letter to keep it straight in Line.
1820. T. Hodgson, Ess. Stereotype Printing, 106, note. All types have one or more nicks in their body, to serve as a guide to the compositor when arranging them in his stick.
1907. Scott. Typogr. Circular, Feb., 215/2. I find that nowadays, unless I read my sticks, it is impossible [etc.].
e. The hammer or mallet with which a dulcimer or drum is struck.
1538. Elyot, Dict., Pecten..., it is also the stickes wherewith a man stryketh doulcemers whan he doeth playe on them.
1589–. [see DRUMSTICK].
f. A violin bow, a fiddlestick. † A stick of fiddles: ? a fiddler.
a. 1600. T. Preston, Cambyses, F 1 b. They be at hand sir with sticke and fiddle.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, II. vi. Jaq. They have got a stick of Fiddles, and they firke it In wondrous waies.
1667. H. More, Div. Dial., II. xviii. (1713), 145. As in a Musical Instrument, whose Strings are good, and the Stick good.
8. The melody pipe of a Highland bagpipe = CHANTER1 5.
1861. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, III. 167/2. My old chanter has … lost its tone; for when a stick gets too sharp a sound, it’s never any good. Ibid. My great grandfather played on this stick when Charley Stuart … came over to Scotland.
h. pl. The thin pieces of ivory, bone or other material upon which the folding material of a fan is mounted.
1701. Lond. Gaz., No. 3704/4. Lost…, an Italian Fan with Ivory painted Sticks.
1760–2. Goldsm., Cit. World, xli. That old woman … who sits groaning behind the long sticks of a mourning fan.
1879. Encycl. Brit., IX. 28/1. The sticks [18th c.] were made of mother-of-pearl or ivory, carved with extraordinary skill.
11. slang. a. A pistol; more explicitly shooting stick.
1788. Grose, Dict. Vulgar T. (ed. 2), Sticks, pops or pistols. Stow your sticks; hide your pistols.
1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, III. v. See how he flashes his sticks.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Miner’s Right, xvi. I always carry a brace of ‘shooting sticks.’
† b. A sermon. Obs. rare.
1759. T. Boucher, Let. J. James, 7 Aug. (MS.). What matter of a new stick, vamp them one for next Sunday. Ibid. (1762), 5 Aug. (MS.). At sea, I drew up I believe 1/2 a dozen sticks—originals.
c. Thieves’ slang. A jemmy or crowbar.
1887. J. W. Horsley, Jottings from Jail, 11. We shall want some twirls and the stick (crowbar).
1890. Daily News, 14 July, 2/8. [He] took from his inside coat pocket a powerful jemmy saying ‘I suppose you don’t want my stick.’
d. pl. Furniture, household goods; more fully sticks of furniture. Rarely sing. in every stick, every article of furniture (cf. 3 b).
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, VII. vii. (Rtldg.), 11. The moveables, not excepting my own apparel, every stick and every thread, had been carried off.
1823. ‘Jon Bee,’ Dict. Turf, s.v., I lost all my sticks by that ’ere fire at Stepney.
1864. Blackmore, Clara Vaughan, xxvi. (1872), 84. Her strange biographies of every table, chair, and cushion—her ‘sticks,’ as she delighted to call them.
1867. All Year Round, 13 July, 55/1. The breaking up of the home, [and] the selling of ‘the few sticks of furniture.’
e. pl. Legs.
1830. Marryat, King’s Own, xxvi. He was so weak that he couldn’t get up on his sticks again.
f. (Now U.S. and colonial.) With a stick in it: said of tea, coffee, etc., with a dash of brandy.
1804. R. Anderson, Cumbld. Ball. (1808), 175. A quart o’ het yell, and a stick in’t.
1890. Mrs. C. Praed, Rom. of Station, vi. Have a parting drink for good luck—coffee, if you like, with a ‘stick’ in it…. The waiter brought in coffee and cognac.
1892. F. M. Crawford, Three Fates, xiv. But you really do look dreadfully. Have some tea—with a stick in it, as papa calls it.
12. Applied, with qualifying adj., to a person, orig. with figurative notion of sense 2 or 4, as tough stick; crooked (Sc. thrawn) stick, a perverse, cross-grained person.
1682. N. O., Boileau’s Lutrin, II. 164. That tough stick of Wood, Boirude the Sexton.
1785. Span. Rivals, 8. He’s a queer stick to make a thivel on.
1833. Hood, Publ. Dinner, 15. A stick of a Chairman, A little dark spare man.
1839. A. Gray, Lett. (1893), 223. He is a queer stick altogether.
1846–8. Lowell, Biglow P., Ser. I. ix. 35. So, ez I aint a crooked stick,… I’ll go back to my plough.
1859. Hotten’s Slang Dict., 102. ‘A rum’ or ‘odd stick,’ a curious man.
1886. J. R. Rees, Pleas. Book-Worm, v. 178. Some disagreeable old stick has probably eaten an enormous dinner [etc.].
1893. Crockett, Stickit Minister, 30. Tammas Carlyle, thrawn stick as he was.
1897. W. Dyke, Craiktrees, ii. He’s nobbit twenty-two—young—a verra young stick.
b. A ‘wooden’ person; one lacking in capacity for his work, or in geniality of manner; Theatr. an indifferent actor.
1800. Miss Edgeworth, Belinda, xx. And you, out of patience,… will go and marry … some stick of a rival.
1801. W. Burton, Pasquinade, 11. He’s not a bad actor, though they call him a stick.
1820. Byron, Blues, I. 89. Tracy. In Prose My talent is decent, as far as it goes; But in rhyme —. Inkel. You’re a terrible stick, to be sure.
1820. L. Hunt, Indicator, No. 33 (1822), I. 257. A habit … of calling insipid things and persons sticks…. A poor stick, a mere stick, a stick of a fellow.
1856. Olmsted, Slave States, 83. He had had to hire white men to help him, but they were poor sticks and would be half the time drunk.
1873. Punch, 15 Nov., 202/1. Charles Kemble was rather a stick at first, and was made a great artist by … close study.
1883. M. Pattison, Mem., i. (1885), 23. Though the tutors … were first class men, yet the tuition was not esteemed good…. Tommy Churton I afterwards came to know as a ‘stick.’
1899. Kernahan, Scoundrels & Co., xxi. To a good fellow, the right hand of fellowship is readily extended. The ‘stick’ will find himself as readily cold-shouldered.
† 13. Some measure of land: ? = STAFF sb.
1664. Terrier of Westborne, Sussex (MS.). One other Plott … which James Sowter renteth of him … conteyneth about half a Stick of Land. Item one other Plott of Land … conteyneth about a quarter of a Stick of ground.
III. 14. Figurative phrases of various origins. (Chiefly slang or colloquial.)
a. To play a good stick: said of a fiddler (see sense 10). In later use gen. to play one’s part well. So to fire a good stick (Shooting).
1748. Smollett, Rod. Rand., ix. You hear he plays a good stick.
1809. T. Donaldson, Poems, 183. He handl’d his Rammy so terribly quick The folks all declar’d that ‘he play’d a good stick.’
1824. W. Irving, Tales Trav., Bold Dragoon (1848), 25. He could swear a good stick himself.
1842. Bellew, Mem. Griffin, xx. The captain … fired a capital good stick nevertheless, and knocked the birds about, right and left, in great style.
1867. E. Waugh, Tufts of Heather, Ser. I. (1893), 188. The hungry travellers sat down. For about half-an-hour every man of the three ‘played a good stick,’ as the old saying goes.
† b. Slang. To be high up the stick: to stand high in one’s profession.
1818. Sir C. Morgan, in Lady Morgan, Autobiog. (1859), 295. All my acquaintance among the doctors are so high up the stick, they have no time to spare to answer inquiries.
c. To beat (rarely knock) all to sticks, to overcome or surpass completely. To go to sticks, more emphatically to go to sticks and staves, to be ruined.
1820. Blackw. Mag., VIII. 85. Which in the west country beats our stot-beef here all to sticks.
1824. Miss Ferrier, Inher., ix. She married a Highland drover, or tacksman, I can’t tell which, and they went all to sticks and staves.
1840. Thackeray, Barber Cox, April. When I came to know his game, I used to knock him all to sticks; or, at least, win six games to his four.
c. 1842. Carlyle, in A. Bain Autobiog. (1904), 126. All that I could gather was that the Church of Christ was going to sticks.
1859. Lever, Dav. Dunn, lxxvi. 669. It’s as good as a play to hear about this … it beats Newmarket all to sticks.
d. Sporting slang. To shoot for the stick, i.e., for the total amount of game shot as distinguished from ‘for sport.’ (Cf. 1 b.)
1834. New Monthly Mag., XLI. 288. In a battue … the shooting is for the stick, as it is technically phrased—not for the pleasure, but the pride of the murderer of hecatombs.
e. (To have or get) the right or the wrong end of the stick: to have the advantage or the contrary in a bargain or a contest. Also, to have got hold of the wrong end of the stick: to have got a story wrong, not know the facts of the case. (Sense 4.)
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer (1891), 249. If you happen to have the arrangement of a bargain … with the rural Australian, you will rarely find that the apparently impassive countryman has ‘got the wrong end of the stick.’
1897. Beatty, Secretar, xiii. 100. I was more convinced than ever … that I had the right end of the stick.
f. To hold the sticks to, to hold sticks with: to compete on equal terms with.
a. 1817. W. Muir, Poems (1818), 58 (E. D. D.). Nae kitten, fam’d for fun an’ tricks, Can to the weasel ha’d the sticks.
1853. Reade, Love me Little, I. viii. 232. If I began by despising my business … how should I ever hold sticks with my able competitors?
g. To keep (one) at the stick’s end: to keep at a distance, treat with reserve.
1886. Stevenson, Kidnapped, viii. The captain, though he kept me at the stick’s end the most part of the time, would sometimes unbuckle a bit and tell me of the fine countries he had visited.
h. Used to give additional emphasis in several alliterative phrases, as stick, stark, staring = absolutely, completely, downright. Cf. 3 c.
1839. Hood, Lost Heir, 23. I shall go stick stark staring wild!
1892. Mrs. H. Ward, David Grieve, I. iv. Aunt Hannah ’ll be stick stock mad wi’ boath on us.
1909. W. J. Locke, Septimus, 330. Now he had gone stick, stark, staring, raving, biting mad.
IV. attrib. and Comb.
15. a. simple attrib., as stick fire, point; (sense 8) as stick cinnamon, liquorice, metal, phosphorus, pomatum, rhubarb; b. objective, as stick-cutting, -rubbing; stick-dresser, -maker; instrumental, as stick-blow; stick-built adj.; similative, as stick-like, -shaped adjs.
1886. R. F. Burton, Arab. Nts., I. 242, note. They … cut off the ear-lobes, gave ten *stick-blows.
1841. Penny Cycl., XX. 148/2. The *stick-built nest contains four … eggs.
1668. G. Hartman, Digby’s Receipts Physick, etc. 15. 5 pennyworth of *stick Cinnamon.
1883. F. M. Peard, Contradictions, xviii. Leaving Gina to watch the progress of Jim’s *stick-cutting.
1890. Daily News, 22 Oct., 7/7. A *stick-dresser was committed for trial on a charge of wounding [etc.].
1808. Eleanor Sleath, Bristol Heiress, IV. 12. Dame Jenkinson was sitting by the blaze of a *stick fire.
1831. Trelawny, Adv. Younger Son, III. 292. A stoical apathy or look, that … the most *stick-like lords … would have envied.
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1826), Post. Groans No. 29. Some long-forgotten bonbon of your boyhood … *stick-liquorice,… &c.
1803. Censor, 1 April, 39. Mr. Huntsmill, the *stick maker of Whitechapel.
1900. Hasluck, Model Engin. Handybk., 67. This nut is best turned from a piece of *stick metal.
1849. D. Campbell, Inorg. Chem., 21. The sixth part of an inch of *stick phosphorus.
1905. A. T. Sheppard, Red Cravat, II. ii. 60. Tossing the clothes to one side of the room with her *stick-point.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Bandoline, a kind of *stick pomatum.
1840. Pereira, Mat. Med., 814. *Stick rhubarb … is said … to be obtained from Rheum undulatum.
1841. Penny Cycl., XIX. 451/1. Stick rhubarb is sold in the herb shops, and is in long pieces.
1912. Contemp. Rev., June, 900. Fire was obtained by *stick-rubbing.
1857. Henfrey, Bot., 586. A kind of minute *stick-shaped corpuscle.
16. Special comb.: stick-bug U.S. (a) = stick-insect; (b) a predaceous reduvioid bug, Emesa longipes (Cent. Dict., 1891); stick-caterpillar, a larva resembling a stick; stick chair, a sedan chair; stick chimney U.S., a log-house chimney composed of sticks piled up crosswise and cemented with mud or clay; stick-cover, -covert (see quot. 1854); stick-dam (see quot.); stick-flour (see quot.); stick-heap, an artificial fox-covert made of sticks (cf. stick-cover); stick-helmet, a mask with additional guards for the forehead and head, used in cudgel-play (Cent. Dict.); stick holder (see quot.); stick-insect, any insect of the family Phasmidæ, from its resemblance to the branches and twigs of the trees in which it is found; stick mounter, a workman employed to affix the mounts of walking-sticks; stick-net, a small net run upon a ring fixed at the end of a stick; stick-pile † (a) = HERON’S BILL; (b) = stick-heap; stick-play, play with cudgel or single-stick; so also stick-player; stick-pot U.S., a lobster-pot constructed of laths or narrow strips of wood; stick-sling, a sling in the form of a stick with a cleft at one end in which the stone to be thrown was placed; stick slinger slang (see quot.); sticktail U.S. (Long Island), the ruddy duck Erismatura rubida, characterized by having narrow and rigid tail-feathers; stickwork, in various ball games, the management of the bat or club. Also STICKLAC.
1894. S. H. Scudder, in Harper’s Mag., Feb., 456/1. ‘Witches’ horses,’ … which in some other States are dubbed *‘stick-bugs’ and ‘prairie alligators,’ our Diapheromera femorata.
1898. Morris, Austral Eng., 349. The various species [of the family Phasmidæ] are known as Leaf-insects, Walking-leaves, *Stick-caterpillars [etc.].
1908. Mary Johnston, Lewis Rand, i. 11. Coach and chaise, curricle and *stick-chair, were encountered.
1846. Mrs. Kirkland, West. Clearings, 7. The house was … of the roughest;… its *stick chimney, so like its owner’s hat, open at the top, and jammed in at the sides.
1897. Encycl. Sport, I. 550/2. (Hunting) *Stick covers and faggot covers [for foxes].
1854. Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., *Stick-covert, a plat of ground stuck with thorns to make a fox-cover.
1897. Encycl. Sport, I. 550/1. (Hunting) Foxes … found in gorse and stick coverts are often short runners.
1884. Evang. Mag., May, 214. The other kind of [beaver’s] dam is the ‘stick-dam,’ consisting of sticks and poles interlaced on the lower side.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Stick-flour, a Brazilian name for cassava meal.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 28 Sept., 4/3. *Stick heaps … when judiciously placed … seldom fail to hold foxes.
1901. E. A. Pratt, Notable Masters, 44. [Josiah Mason] also did a large business in making cedar-wood pen-holders, or ‘stick-holders.’
1854. A. Adams, etc. Man. Nat. Hist., 210. *Stick-Insects (Phasmidæ).
1882. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., VI. 130. Most of them resemble sticks, either green, growing twigs, or brown and withered branches, and hence the names of Stick-insects and Walking-sticks.
1895. Daily Chron., 28 Aug., 8/4. *Stick Mounters wanted.
1862. Carpenter, Microscope (ed. 3), § 394 a. 640. Among other animals captured by the *stick-net, the marine Zoologist will be not unlikely to meet with … the Tomopteris.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, Suppl., *Stike pile is Storkes bil.
1895. Leamington Spa Courier, 14 March, in Mordaunt & Verney, Ann. Warwicksh. Hunt (1896), II. 289. The next resort was to the noted stick-pile at Napton, where a fox … was at home.
1891. Century Dict., *Stick-play.
1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 29 Dec., 2/2. The professional boxer, wrestler, or *stickplayer.
1887. G. B. Goode, Fish. Industr. U.S., V. II. 666. Other names by which they [lobster traps] are known to the fishermen are … *‘stick-pots,’ and ‘lath-coops.’
1872. J. Evans, Anc. Stone Impl., xviii. 375. This flat lenticular form [of stone] is better adapted for the *stick-sling than a pebble.
1856. Mayhew, Gt. World London, 46. Thieves, who admit of being classified as follows:—… ‘bludgers’ or *‘stick slingers,’ who rob in company with low women.
1909. Westm. Gaz., 11 Jan., 12/4. The outstanding feature of the game was the wonderful … *stickwork of the … outside right.
