stick

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“
And the thing she calls a stick is the lever, nothing else No!"

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Definitions (170)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (60)

  1. noun A long slender piece of wood, especially:
  2. noun A branch or stem cut from a tree or shrub.
  3. noun A piece of wood, such as a tree branch, that is used for fuel, cut for lumber, or shaped for a specific purpose.
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Examples (29)

  • And the thing she calls a stick is the lever, nothing else No!" —  Growth of the Soil
  • A strong stick, four or five feet long, is secured to the tree by a staple and at the lower end of the stick is a short chain with a snap in the end. —  Manual of Gardening (Second Edition)
  • What they feared infinitely more than the birch or the stick was the proprietor's power of giving them or their sons as recruits. —  Russia
  • The emperor holds a stick in his hands, both ends parallel to the horizon, while the candidates advancing, one by one, sometimes leap over the stick, sometimes creep under it, backward and forward, several times, according as the stick is advanced or depressed. —  Gulliver's Travels
  • Sausages on a stick are available as are soft drinks and other food items. —  The Gazette-Enterprise: News
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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

knife ·  piece ·  ball ·  pole ·  rod ·  bag ·  rope ·  wood ·  brush ·  branch ·  bone ·  shell

Used in the same contextWord Family

stick:   sticking ·  stuck ·  sticks
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (6)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English stikke, from Old English sticca; see steig- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (5)

  1. A verb confused in form and meanings with stick, stick being more properly steek (as in dial. uses) or *steak (after the analogy of break, speak, etc.); English dial. steek, Scots steik, etc.; from Middle English stiken, properly steken (preterit stak, past participle steken, i-steken, y-steke, stiken, stoken; also, by conformity with stick, preterit stiked, stikede, past participle stiked), from Anglo-Saxon *stecan (preterit *stæc, past participle *stecen), pierce, stab, = Old Saxon stekan (preterit stak) = OFries. steka = Middle Dutch, Dutch steken = Middle Low German Low German steken = Old High German stechan, stehhan, Middle High German G. stechen (preterit stach, past participle gestochen), pierce; not found in Scandinavian or Gothic (Moesogothic) (the Gothic (Moesogothic) form would be *stikan; cf. Gothic (Moesogothic) staks, a mark, stigma, stiks, a point, a moment of time); Teutonic √ stik = L. √ stig (in instigare, prick, instigate, *stinguere (in comp. distinguere, distinguish, exstinguere, extinguish), stimulus, a prick, goad, stilus, a point, style, etc.) = Greek √ στιγ (in στίζειν, prick, στίγμα, a prick, mark, spot) = Sanskrit √ tij for *stij, be sharp. From this root are ult. English stick, stick, stitch, steak, sting, etc., and, through Old French, ticket, etiquette (from a collateral Teutonic root, stake, stock, stang, stoke, stoker, etc.); from the L. root are ult. English style, distinguish, extinguish, distinct, extinct, instinct, stimulate, stimulus, instigate, prestige, etc. The verb stick, pierce, has been confused, partly in Middle English and completely in modern English, with its derivative stick. The reg. modern preterit of stick would be *stack or *stake (as in Middle English), but the preterit has yielded to the influence of the past participle, and, becoming *stoke, appears in modern English with shortened vowel stuck, as also in the past participle (cf. break, preterit brake, now broke, past participle broken; speak, preterit spake, now spoke, past participle spoken—verbs phonetically parallel to stick).
  2. from stick, v.
  3. from Middle English sticken, stikken, stykken, stiken, styken, steken, stikien, stykien, stekien (preterit stikede, etc.; also, by conformity with stick, preterit stak, past participle steken, stoken), be fastened, adhere, also fasten, from Anglo-Saxon stician (preterit sticode) (= Middle Low German steken), pierce, stab, intransitive cleave, adhere, stick; a weak form, parallel with an unrecorded form to be assumed as the cognate of the Low German, etc., weak verb, namely Anglo-Saxon *steccan = Middle Dutch stecken = Middle Low German Low German stecken = Old High German stecchen, Middle High German G. stecken (preterit steckte; also, by conformity with stechen, preterit stack), stick, set, stick fast, remain, = Swedish sticka = Danish stikke, stab, sting (these apparently due in part to the Low German forms cognate with stick); not found in Gothic (Moesogothic), where the form would be *stakjan, standing for *staikjan = Anglo-Saxon as if *stǣcan, etc., a secondary form from the root *stik, or else directly from the root *stak, a collateral form of the root *stik: see stick, and cf. stick. The forms and senses of the primitive and derivative verbs become confused, and cannot now be wholly separated; in most dictionaries the two verbs are completely merged. Under stick are put all uses of the verb so spelled not clearly belonging originally to stick or stick. The proper preterit of stick is sticked; this has been superseded by stuck, or dial. stack (Middle English stak), which properly belongs only to stick.
  4. from Middle English sticke, stikke, from Anglo-Saxon sticca, a stick, peg, nail, = Middle Dutch stick, steck, Middle Low German sticke, Low German stikke = Old High German sticcho, steccho, stecho (later Italian stecco, thorn, stecca, staff, French étiquette, ticket, etc.), Middle High German stecke, steche, German stecken, a stick; cf. Icelandic stika, stick (for fuel), a stick (yard-measure): so called as having orig. a sharp point; from the root of stick (Anglo-Saxon *stecan, etc.): see stick, stick, and cf. stake, steak, stitch, stickle, etiquette, ticket, etc.; also stock, etc.
  5. from stick, n.
 

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/stɪk/
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