stick – English noun declension

English noun forms of stick

Noun: stick
Singularstick
Pluralsticks

Sample Sentences

  • The beaver's dam was made out of sticks.
  • Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. [2013 July-August, Henry Petroski, “Geothermal Energy”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4:]
  • I found several good sticks in the brush heap.
  • What do you call a boomerang that won't come back? A stick.
  • It is a fine stick, about 70 feet long. [1887 August 23, “At Work on the Thistle”, in The New York Times:]
  • I found enough sticks in dumpsters at construction sites to build my shed.
  • I don’t need my stick to walk, but it’s helpful.
  • The slightest effort made the patient cough. He would stand leaning on a stick and holding a hand to his side, and when the paroxysm had passed it left him shaking. [1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:]
  • As soon as the fight started, the guards came in swinging their sticks.
  • When cutting the door parts, I cut all the copes first, then the sticks. [1997, Joseph Beals, “Building Interior Doors”, in Doors, Taunton Press, →ISBN, page 82:]
  • We were so poor we didn't have one stick of furniture.
  • It is more than poor Philip is worth, with all his savings and his little sticks of furniture. [1862, W.M. Thackeray, The Adventures of Philip, printed in Harper's New Monthly Magazine volume XXV edition, page 242:]
  • I've been working behind the stick for twenty years.
  • […] other side of the stick, that's what they call the bar around here. [1946, The Ladies' Home Journal, volume 63, page 205:]
  • Sealing wax is available as a cylindrical or rectangular stick.
  • The recipe calls for half a stick of butter.
  • Don’t hog all that gum, give me a stick!
  • Cigarettes are taxed at one dollar per stick.
  • My parents bought us each a stick of cotton candy.
  • Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it[…] [1611, The Bible, King James Version edition, Ezekiel 37:16:]
  • Scores of transport planes streamed in to drop stick after stick of containers until the entire sky over the coast was polka-dotted with brightly coloured parachutes. [2001, Raymond Mitchell, Commando Despatch Rider, →ISBN, page 70:]
  • A stick of bombs fell straight across Wotton; blew up half a dozen houses. [2006, Farley Mowat, Aftermath: Travels in a Post-War World, →ISBN, page 200:]
  • James and I were in the same stick of five guys going through free fall school last September. [2006, Holly Aho, From Here to There, →ISBN, page 48:]
  • I grew up driving a stick, but many people my age didn't.
  • I grew up driving stick, but many people my age didn't.
  • For example: in making a turn, should you throw on too much stick and not enough rudder, you'll sideslip. [1941, Jay D. Blaufox, 33 Lessons in Flying, page 47:]
  • The keyboard offers a full range of actions including Fight and you are given the option of using a Kempston stick for the movement combat. [1985 December, Richard Price, Fairlight (video game review) in Your Sinclair issue 45]
  • When you’re swooping, looping, and diving with the analog stick (either using the nunchuk or the Classic controller), the game feels very much like its 32-bit predecessor; […] [2007 December 26, Chris Hoffman, “Neverending Nights”, in Nintendo Power, volume 222, page 30:]
  • For ultimate presentation portability, a Powerpoint can be saved to a stick as images. [2007 May 1, Alex Fethiere, “Business Traveler”, in Tech front: Alex Fethiere takes eleven notable portables for a high-tech test-drive:]
  • A stick in the hand, a drop in the eye. [2007 September 18, “Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya”, in Joseph B. Geoghegan (lyrics), The Meanest of Times, performed by Dropkick Murphys:]
  • You think you’re real now you’ve got a couple sticks? My favourite younger, he got stabbed in my bits. And if he died fam, I promise I’d have quit. [2013 April 8, “Off the Record”, in Topic of Discussion, performed by Yungen:]
  • Bitch, pig, pull out with the stick / everything I hit like a lick/ We don’t miss [2018 July 27, “Strip Talk”, Marty Mula (lyrics), 1:52:]
  • […]although the headings may often be in other type, still, as these are composed in the same stick, they cannot fail to justify;[…] [1854, Thomas Ford, The Compositor's Handbook, page 125:]
  • Arsene, boy, ain't you worried about your clarinet? Where'd you leave that stick, man? [1948, Frederic Ramsey, Jr., “Deep Sea Rider”, in Charles Harvey, editor, Jazz Parody: Anthology of Jazz Fiction:]
  • Tripping with the stick is a violation of the rules.
  • His wedge shot bounced off the stick and went in the hole.
  • His stroke with that two-piece stick is a good as anybody's in the club.
  • He shoots a mean stick of pool.
  • Come in, have a good time, drink some beer, shoot some stick, listen to some music. [2003, Lew Bryson, New York Breweries, →ISBN, page 74:]
  • I doubted that the three iron was enough stick. [1988, William Hallberg, The Rub of the Green, page 219:]
  • Vaughn has to hit and keep hitting or this will be another year when the Mets don't have enough stick to win. [2002 May 19, Mike Lupica, “Just Need A Little Mo”, in New York Daily News:]
  • Your father's a great old stick. He's really been very good to me. [1967, Maurice Shadbolt, The Presence of Music: Three Novellas, page 54:]
  • “[…]He’s a good doctor but an odd stick—odder by far than I am, Emily, and yet nobody ever says he’s not all there. Can you account for that? He doesn’t believe in God—and I am not such a fool as that.” [1923, Lucy Maud Montgomery, “Chapter 7”, in Emily of New Moon:]
  • "She's a stick, this one. She lacks your—" he patted her left breast— "equipment." [1967, Cecelia Holland, Rakóssy, page 39:]
  • The kid was a stick, a plant, a student from UNLV who picked up a few bucks nightly by saying the words "seven of hearts." [2001, Paul Quarrington, The Spirit Cabinet, page 255:]
  • A shill is also called a stick, and the role of the shill or stick is to make the customer relax and feel at ease. [2011, Howard Fast, Helen:]
  • Bill Kirk, described by Robin as a "hell of a stick," didn't even attend college until after the Vietnam War. [2001, John Darrell Sherwood, Fast Movers: America's Jet Pilots and the Vietnam Experience, page 30:]
  • I remember when we dreaded the rain, as our stick of soldiers walked through the damp, tick-infested long grass of the Zambezi valley,[…] [2007, Bart Wolffe, Persona Non Grata, →ISBN, page 245:]
  • We were tempted with the carrot but subtly threatened with the stick.
  • What about contempt? Isn't it used by the judiciary as a stick to dissuade people from writing or talking about them? [1998 January 23, “Judicial activism has ushered in hope”, in Indian Express:]
  • Back in 2009, when Democrats tried but failed to take significant climate action, their policy proposals consisted mainly of sticks—limits on emissions in the form of permits that businesses could buy and sell. [2023 August 7, Paul Krugman, “Climate Is Now a Culture War Issue”, in The New York Times:]
  • The child killers got some stick. I saw a woman throw a basin of scalding water over a baby killer. [1999, Eve McDougall, A Wicked Fist, →ISBN, page 69:]
  • “[…] Nigel used the word ‘invasion’ for a long time and got a huge amount of stick […]” he says, referring to the total number of men, women and children who have arrived by small boat in the past seven years. [2025 August 2, Anna Gross, quoting Zia Yusuf, “Lunch with the FT: Zia Yusuf”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3:]
  • Most people can remember their first taste of cider: sandwiched between an illicit fag and a bout of throwing up. It’s always been the teen drink of choice: available in group-sized bottles and with a more acceptably fruity taste than beer. It is also the down-and-out’s favourite tipple because it’s stronger than many bitters and lagers, so it’s a cheap way to get wasted. As a consequence, it has never been the hippest of drinks. As a devotee, I’ve come in for some stick over the years. [2006 April 13, Annabelle Thorpe, “Student tipple comes of age”, in The Times:]
  • I got some stick personally because of my walking attire. I arrived to training fully kitted out in sturdy walking boots. [2008 May 3, Chris Roberts, “It’s a stroll in the park!”, in Huddersfield Daily Examiner:]
  • 'I have nothing against the players at Cardiff, because they did all help me to become a better player.' He added: 'I'll probably have a lot of stick when I return to Ninian Park for that game, but I did was the best I could for Cardiff and the supporters. I've just got to get on with it and try to do a job for Birmingham City - this is now my future and my new employer.' [2013 March 30, Hannah Finch, “I expect I'll get a lot of stick - Jerome”, in WalesOnline:]
  • Again Rwanda chose to follow a different path, reflecting the unique historical and political context of the country, and dispensed with the sermons on democracy from outsiders. So Rwandans get a lot of stick for being big-headed and refusing to follow a path chosen for them, but striking out independently. They get hit for insisting on being the principal actors in making choices about matters that concern them. [2017 July 27, Joseph Rwagatare, “Why Rwandans get a lot of stick for doing right”, in The New Times:]
  • He really gave that digging some stick. (He threw himself into the task of digging.)
  • She really gave that bully some stick. (She berated him.)
  • Give it some stick!
  • 'Choir gave it some stick on "Unto Us a Son is Born."' ¶ Cynthia nodded. ¶ 'It was always one of Russell's favourites. He makes them try hard on that.' [1979, Don Bannister, Sam Chard, →ISBN, page 185:]
  • Skunk really gave it some stick all the way to Caliban's place, we passed a good few Coppers but they all seemed to turn the blind eye. [2006, Martyn J. Pass, Dani Pass, Waiting for Red, →ISBN, page 163:]
  • There was another speech in that day's news — a speech which The Times printed on the front page because it was part of a front-page story, and in full — it was only two sticks long; printed in full just after the much longer invocation by the officiating clergyman […] [1921, Elmer Davis, History of the New York Times, 1851-1921, page 61:]
  • The stick is employed for eels, and contained twenty-five. [1866, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, →ISBN, Volume 1, page 171:]
  • In the same charter, Nigel granted another 10 sticks of eels yielded by the fishery of Polwere to the abbey[…] [1999, Claire Breay, The Cartulary of Chatteris Abbey, →ISBN, page 62:]

Etymology

1. Etymology tree
2. Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg-
3. Proto-Indo-European *stignéh₂-
4. Proto-Germanic *stikkōną
5. Proto-Germanic *stikkô
6. Proto-West Germanic *stikkō
7. Old English sticca
8. Middle English stikke
9. English stick
10. From Middle English stikke (“stick, rod, twig”), from Old English sticca (“rod, twig”), from Proto-West Germanic *stikkō, from Proto-Germanic *stikkô (“stick, pole”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to pierce, prick, be sharp”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Stikke (“stick”), West Flemish stik (“stick”), Dutch stek (“spot, place, home”), German Low German Stick (“stick”), German Stecken (“stick”), Danish and Norwegian stikke (“stick”), Swedish sticka (“splinter, needle”). Related to stigma. See: Middle English Nouns 'stikke', Old English Nouns 'sticca', Dutch Nouns 'stek', German Nouns 'Stecken', Swedish Nouns 'sticka'.

Verbs referencing "stick"

Dutch Nouns stick, Romanian Nouns stick, English Nouns thistle, Dutch Nouns stek, Russian Nouns стекло, French Nouns étiquette, Latin Nouns stiva, Swedish Nouns sticka, Galician Nouns toxo, Russian Nouns стек, Spanish Nouns estique, Catalan Nouns estic, Portuguese Nouns estilete, Dutch Nouns stickie, Finnish Nouns stikki, Russian Nouns стик.