From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
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.]
[1913 Webster]
Patient anglers, standing all the day
Near to some shallow stickle or deep bay. --W. Browne.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
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.]
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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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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Stickle \Stic"kle\, 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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From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
stickle
v 1: dispute or argue stubbornly (especially minor points)
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