stick
/stɪk/ verb B1- To become or remain attached; to adhere. · The tape will not stick if it melts.
- To jam; to stop moving. · The lever sticks if you push it too far up.
- To tolerate, to endure, to stick with.
- To persist. · His old nickname stuck.
- Of snow, to remain frozen on landing.
- To remain loyal; to remain firm. · Just stick to your strategy, and you will win.
- To hesitate, to be reluctant; to refuse (in negative phrases).
- To be puzzled (at something), have difficulty understanding.
He/she/it sticks · Past stuck · Past participle stuck · -ing form sticking
Verb forms
- Base form
- stick
- He/she/it
- sticks
- Past
- stuck
- Past participle
- stuck
- -ing form
- sticking
An irregular verb: learn its past and past participle by heart.
Phrasal verbs and expressions
From the library
Waves upon the stick!
Hardly knowing what she did, she picked up a little bit of stick, and held it out to the puppy; whereupon the puppy jumped into the air off all its feet at once, with a yelp of delight, and rushed at the stick, and made believe to worry it; then Alice dodged behind a great thistle, to keep herself from being run over; and the moment she appeared on the other side, the puppy made another rush at the stick, and tumbled head over heels in its hurry to get hold of it; then Alice, thinking it was very like having a game of play with a cart-horse, and expecting every moment to be trampled under its feet, ran round the thistle again; then the puppy began a series of short charges at the stick, running a very little way forwards each time and a long way back, and barking hoarsely all the while, till at last it sat down a good way off, panting, with its tongue hanging out of its mouth, and its great eyes half shut.
“Stuck-up old statuette of nothing doing!” commented the ex-Soap King.
You’ve got as much money to waste as any of ’em, and yet you stick to what’s decent and moderate.
Other matches
- stick A small, thin branch from a tree or bush B2
- stick To cut a piece of wood to be the stick member o... C2
- stick A thrust with a pointed instrument C2
- stick Likely to stick C2
- stick around To stay
- stick by to follow or adhere to somebody or something, t...
- stick down To cause to stick to a surface.
- stick out To protrude.
Learn stick in real texts
With a free account, hover any word in the library for its meaning, hear it read aloud, save words for review timed to your memory, and see how much of each book you already know.