[f. STICK v.1 + -Y.]
1. Having the property of sticking or adhering; adhesive; also, of a substance, viscid, glutinous.
[1727: cf. STICKINESS1.]
1735. Dyche & Pardon, Dict., Sticky, of a clammy Nature, apt to cleave or adhere to any Thing.
1755. Johnson (with quot. from Bacon: see STICKY a.1).
1823. J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 31. A well-known sticky substance called putty.
1855. Longf., Life (1891), II. 290. Everything sticky except postage-stamps.
1864. Intell. Observer, V. 269. In like manner limpid fluids oppose less resistance than sticky ones.
1870. Dickens, E. Drood, iii. I’m too stickey to be kissed.
1908. [Miss E. Fowler], Betw. Trent & Ancholme, 378. Smelling of sticky paint and varnish.
b. Path. Of sounds heard in auscultation: Resembling those produced in viscid substances.
1896. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., I. 681. The posterior parts of the lungs are full of sharp, sticky rales of a quality quite peculiar to the disease. Ibid. (1898), V. 756. [Pericardial friction sound] has also been described as ‘sticky.’
c. Racing and Cricket. Of a course, a wicket: Having a yielding surface owing to wet.
1888. Pall Mall Gaz., 14 March, 11/1. ‘Do you think the bowler suffers much under the present law?’ ‘Well, he does somewhat; but only on sticky wickets.’
1894. Westm. Gaz., 17 July, 6/3. The hurdle race…. Here again the time—16 2.5 sec.—on ‘sticky’ turf, was excellent.
2. a. Of a horse: Apt to ‘stick’ at a fence, i.e., to pause before and after the leap.
1886. St. Stephen’s Rev., 13 March, 11/2. He has one fatal fault for a Liverpool horse which is being sticky at his fences.
b. Of troops: Apt to hesitate in obeying commands.
1898. G. W. Steevens, With Kitchener to Khartum, 305. When they were told to bring out their arms and ammunition they became a bit sticky, as soldiers say. They looked like refusing, and a snap-shot round a corner which killed a black soldier began to look nasty.
1903. Willoughby Verner, in Macm. Mag., Sept., 394/1. It was this sort of thing which earned for some troops the euphonious and admirably descriptive title of sticky.
3. Stock Exchange. (See quot.)
1901. Times, 24 Oct., 7/5. It [Local Loans stock] is ceasing to be ‘sticky,’ to use the Stock Exchange slang describing a security which cannot always be sold just when the holder chooses.
