Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The point where anything sticks, stays, or stops; a place of stay.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun idiomatic, dated The point at which a
process orthing , especially astate of mind oremotion , reaches its greateststrength and remainssteadfast ;sticking point .
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Lots of good lines - the reason they stick in the mind is that they are actually memorable images or juxtapositions of words, like the seeds of time, the milk of human kindness, screwing one's courage to the sticking-place, Out, Damned Spot! and Lay On, Macduff!
March Books 8) Macbeth, by William Shakespeare nwhyte 2009
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Coaches must show (and feel) great confidence, like that from Macbeth, "Screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we'll not fail."
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Coaches must show and feel great confidence, like that from Macbeth, "Screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we'll not fail."
Ken Adelman: Bard Blog: Sports Mania Ken Adelman 2010
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There are of a lot of things I've wanted to blog about, but I can't seem to stick my enthusiasm to the sticking-place.
Ho hum joshenglish 2007
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"Next Michele Obama will tell us to screw our courage to the sticking-place."
Did Sarah Palin just come out in support of the federal marriage amendment? Ann Althouse 2008
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Next Michele Obama will tell us to screw our courage to the sticking-place.
Did Sarah Palin just come out in support of the federal marriage amendment? Ann Althouse 2008
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The boy, not unnaturally, hung back from such a venture, and before he could screw his courage to the sticking-place they had arrived off a small harbour near Brest, and the French had fired a 'patteroe' for a pilot.
Devon, Its Moorlands, Streams and Coasts Rosalind Northcote
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My aunt too rose from the table with something approaching a smile; and the Squire, screwing his courage to the sticking-place, was following her into the drawing-room, evidently for a private interview, when Cousin Amelia, who seemed to have made up her mind to take bodily possession of him, hurried the visitor off to the billiard-room, there to engage in a match which would probably last till luncheon-time.
Kate Coventry An Autobiography G. J. Whyte-Melville
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But as he again approached with courage screwed to the sticking-place, a spruce hansom dashed up before him.
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He was piloted through devious ways and under strange scaffoldings, to the foot of a steep and very dirty flight of steps -- luckily there were only seven -- at the top of which was dimly visible a door; and at this, having screwed his courage to the sticking-place, he knocked.
Austin and His Friends Frederic H. Balfour
bilby commented on the word sticking-place
"We fail! But screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we'll not fail." (Lady Macbeth)
- William Shakespeare, 'Macbeth'.
February 4, 2009