Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. One who insists on something unyieldingly: a stickler for neatness.
- n. Something puzzling or difficult.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An attendant on or a judge of a contest, as a duel; a second; hence, an arbitrator; a peacemaker.
- n. An obstinate contender about anything, often about a thing of little consequence: as, a stickler for ceremony; an advocate; a partizan.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. One who stickles.
- n. obsolete One who arbitrates a duel; a sidesman to a fencer; a second; an umpire.
- n. One who pertinaciously contends for some trifling things, as a point of etiquette; an unreasonable, obstinate contender.
WordNet 3.0
- n. someone who insists on something
Etymologies
- From stickle + -er. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The main stickler is that by the end of the book, the reader is left without a sense of closure.”
“Now the only stickler is that it just so happens she’s out of town on business this week and doesn’t know she’s switching.”
My wife is switching to Apple OS X, she just doesn’t know it yet! — Meandering Passage
“Diane Groomes was known as a stickler for the rules City Desk”
“Mr. Ulrich, known as a stickler for detail, relied on its heritage of upscale merchandising and uncluttered aisles to make Target stand out.”
The Wall Street Journal: Target Promotes Steinhafel to CEO Post
“His main job is penciling — creating the initial drawings, based on stories from writers, which are then finished by inkers — and he is known as a stickler for detail.”
“There is no accepted coaching category called stickler or nitpicker.”
“Cardenas, who bends over to pick up a piece of popcorn off the suite's carpeted floor, is also known as a stickler for cleanliness and a borderline perfectionist.”
“On the other hand, he was always known as a stickler for the rules; none of his teams were ever cited for violations by the NCAA, and he graduated a very high percentage of his players throughout his career.”
“Not to be a "stickler" for accuracy, but if you have said 'dork disc' in your possession, would not the obvious conclusion be that J.G. is, in fact, not, and I'm quoting here, "riding a bicycle with a dork disc" which would render your entire train of thought erroneous?”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘stickler’.
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ChortleGiggleSnort
Significant Words- Guiding you on your path to Snazzibility
flimsy, feeble, ranting, ramble, narky, snazzy, yoghurt, bulbous, pustule, globulous, geranium, megalomaniac and 521 more...
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MiaLuthien's list ♥
gambit, prehensile, coquetry, impunity, genuflect, ensconce, clavicle, delude, beget, castigate, life caching, convoluted and 478 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
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Miss Sunshine
she's such a joy.
bereaved, bitter, cheerless, dejected, depressed, despairing, despondent, disconsolate, dismal, distressed, doleful, downcast and 405 more...
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NTDW1
template, modal, sublingual, tandem, polycentric, septuagenarian, token, irrevocable, denotive, augural, aberrant, phlebotomy and 1188 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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savage215's Words
pipe, yankee, knickerbocker, tennis, plasma, magma, volcano, car, truck, television, tv, word and 445 more...
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Favorite Words
i love words.
ricochet, clavicle, etymology, equivocate, decoupage, dillydally, effervescent, flimflam, haberdashery, hullabaloo, debacle, juxtapose and 210 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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Historical Military Terms of Interest
Many (if not all) of these terms were selected from A pocket dictionary, for military officers, containing a definition of all the tactical terms now in use, with other matter belonging to the art ...
zig-zags, yeoman, xerxes, xeiff, xenophon, worm, watch-word, windage, wheeling, wad-hock, wadding, volley and 242 more...
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difficult-list44
somber, somnambulist, somnolent, sophist, sophistry, sophomoric, soporific, sordid, spangle, spate, spawn, specious and 39 more...
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Lexicon 12
???
abut, balk, falter, grudging, inure, fathom, tenuous, finicky, hedonism, allude, rhetoric, pettifog and 36 more...
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Words
malpitte, marshmellow, beneuk, doohickey, cara mia, fluke, blot, philosoraptor, kiki kannibal, duplo, whambulance, henchmen and 62 more...
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OrbitalCombustion's Words
nepenthe, phrontistery, peregrination, pervicacious, sinistrality, phallogocentric, prolixity, leptokurtic, ineffable, haecceity, lucubration, vicissitudes and 1026 more...
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GRE BOX 27
S-T
stanch, stanza, static, statute, statutory, steadfast, stealth, steep, stellar, stem, stemmed, stentorian and 53 more...
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Erudite Vocab
coruscate, abscond, deracinate, dragoon, encumber, excoriate, exsanguinate, pestilence, extirpate, gambol, immolate, impugn and 85 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for stickler.
reesetee Interesting! I'm looking at my "Sticklers Unite" editor's plaque in a whole new light. ;-) Oct 9, 2008
chained_bear I've heard and used this word many times, but was surprised to find out its military/dueling origins:
"STICKLER, a sides-man to a fencer, or a second to a duelist (sic)." (citation in list description)
Makes sense, then, that this word is often used to describe "someone who demands exact conformity to rules." I would too, if someone's life depended on it. Oct 9, 2008