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