Emily Dickinson Lexicon

STICK, v.i.

1. To adhere; to hold to by cleaving to the surface, as by tenacity or attraction; as, glue sticks to the fingers; paste sticks to the wall, and causes paper to stick. I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick to thy scales. – Ezek. xxii
2. To be united; to be inseparable; to cling fast to, as something reproachful. If on your fame our sex a blot has thrown, / 'Twill ever stick, through malice of your own. – Young.
3. To rest with the memory; to abide. – Bacon.
4. To stop; to be impeded by adhesion or obstruction; as, the carriage sticks in the mire.
5. To stop; to be arrested in a course. My faltering tongue / Sticks at the sound. – Smith.
6. To stop; to hesitate. He sticks at no difficulty; he sticks at the commission of no crime; he sticks at nothing.
7. To adhere; to remain; to resist efforts to remove. I had most need of blessing, and amen / Stuck in my throat. – Shak.
8. To cause difficulties or scruples; to cause to hesitate. This is the difficulty that sticks with the most reasonable. – Swift.
9. To be stopped or hindered from proceeding; as, a bill passed the senate, but stuck in the house of representatives. They never doubted the commons, but heard all stuck in the lords' house. – Clarendon.
10. To be embarrassed or puzzled. They will stick long at part of a demonstration, for want of perceiving the connection between two ideas. – Locke.
11. To adhere closely in friendship and affection. There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. – Prov. xviii. To stick to, to adhere closely; to be constant; to be firm; to be persevering; as, to stick to a party or cause. The advantage will be on our side, if we stick to its essentials. – Addison. To stick by, to adhere closely; to be constant; to be firm in supporting. We are your only friends; stick by us, and we will stick by you. – Davenant. #2. To be troublesome by adhering. I am satisfied to trifle away my time, rather than let it stick by you. – Pope. To stick upon, to dwell upon; not to forsake. If the matter be knotty, the mind must stop and buckle to it, and stick upon it with labor and thought. [Not elegant.] – Locke. To stick out, to project; to be prominent. His bones that were not seen, stick out. – Job xxxiii.