Stickle

(stĭk'l), v. i. [imp. & p. p. STICKLED; p. pr. & vb. n. STICKLING.] [From the practice of prize-fighters, who placed seconds with staffs or sticks (whence they were called also sticklers) to interpose occasionally. Johnson.]

1Sense 1. To interpose between combatants and separate them. [Obs.]

The same angel [in Tasso], when half of the Christians are already killed, and all the rest are in a fair way of being routed, stickles betwixt the remainders of God's hosts and the race of fiends. Dryden.

2Sense 2. To take part with one side or the other.

Fortune, as she wont, turned fickle, And for the foe began to stickle. Hudibras.

3Sense 3. To contend, contest, or altercate, in a pertinacious manner on insufficient grounds. “The obstinacy with which he stickles for the wrong.” Hazlitt.

4Sense 4. To play fast and loose; to pass from one side to the other; to trim.

v. t. To intervene in; to arbitrate. [Obs.] They ran to him, and pulling him back by force, stickled that unnatural fray. Sidney.

A shallow in a river, where the water, being confined, runs with violence; 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.*