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Stickle (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Stickled (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Stickling.] [Probably fr. OE. stightlen, stitlen, to dispose, arrange, govern, freq. of stihten, AS. stihtan: cf. G. stiften to found, to establish.]
1. To separate combatants by intervening. [Obs.]
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When he [the angel] sees half of the Christians killed, and the rest in a fair way of being routed, he stickles betwixt the remainder of God's host and the race of fiends. Dryden.
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2. To contend, contest, or altercate, esp. in a pertinacious manner on insufficient grounds.
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Fortune, as she 's wont, turned fickle,
And for the foe began to stickle. Hudibras.
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While for paltry punk they roar and stickle. Dryden.
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The obstinacy with which he stickles for the wrong. Hazlitt.
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3. To play fast and loose; to pass from one side to the other; to trim.
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Stickle, v. t.
1. To separate, as combatants; hence, to quiet, to appease, as disputants. [Obs.]
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Which [question] violently they pursue,
Nor stickled would they be. Drayton.
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2. To intervene in; to stop, or put an end to, by intervening; hence, to arbitrate. [Obs.]
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They ran to him, and, pulling him back by force, stickled that unnatural fray. Sir P. Sidney.
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Stickle, n. [Cf. stick, v. t. & i.] A shallow rapid in a river; also, the current below a waterfall. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.]
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Patient anglers, standing all the day
Near to some shallow stickle or deep bay. W. Browne.
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