n. [ OE. ban, bon, bone + stickle prickle, sting. See Bone, n., Stickleback. ] (Zool.) A small fish, the three-spined stickleback. [ 1913 Webster ]
n. (Zool.) A stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). [ 1913 Webster ]
v. i.
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. [ 1913 Webster ]
Fortune, as she 's wont, turned fickle,
And for the foe began to stickle. Hudibras. [ 1913 Webster ]
While for paltry punk they roar and stickle. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]
The obstinacy with which he stickles for the wrong. Hazlitt. [ 1913 Webster ]
v. t.
Which [ question ] violently they pursue,
Nor stickled would they be. Drayton. [ 1913 Webster ]
They ran to him, and, pulling him back by force, stickled that unnatural fray. Sir P. Sidney. [ 1913 Webster ]
n. [ Cf. stick, v. t. & i. ] A shallow rapid in a river; also, the current below a waterfall. [ Obs. or Prov. Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]
Patient anglers, standing all the day
Near to some shallow stickle or deep bay. W. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]
n. [ OE. & Prov E. stickle a prickle, spine, sting (AS. sticel) + back. See Stick, v. t., and cf. Banstickle. ] (Zool.) Any one of numerous species of small fishes of the genus
n. [ See Stickle, v. t. ] One who stickles. Specifically: -- [ 1913 Webster ]
Basilius, the judge, appointed sticklers and trumpets whom the others should obey. Sir P. Sidney. [ 1913 Webster ]
Our former chiefs, like sticklers of the war,
First sought to inflame the parties, then to poise. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]
The Tory or High-church were the greatest sticklers against the exorbitant proceedings of King James II. Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]