sticky

UK/ˈstɪki/US/ˈstɪki/

adjectiveB14 meanings Common in everyday speech and writing · #3,435 of 15,258neutral

Sticky things hold onto whatever they touch. Honey running down the side of the jar, tape stuck to your fingers, a toffee pulling at your teeth, a café table someone wiped badly.

The everyday nouns come first: sticky tape, a sticky note, sticky fingers after an ice cream. Weather takes the word when it is hot and damp — a sticky August night when the sheet clings to you. Then it turns figurative: a sticky situation is awkward and hard to climb out of, a sticky problem resists solving, and to come to a sticky end is to finish badly. Screens borrowed it too, so a sticky header stays put while the page scrolls under it. Keep sticky and stuck apart: sticky describes the surface, stuck describes what happens to you once you touch it.

Definitions of sticky

1adjectivestickyCovered with something that holds to whatever it touches.B1
“The children came back with sticky hands and no explanation.”
- Said"My fingers are all sticky from the honey; can you open the door?"
- WrittenThe floor by the bar was sticky with a decade of spilled lemonade.
- UsedDampen your palms before shaping the rice, or it turns sticky and clings.
- ContrastSticky, not wet. Wet dries and leaves you alone; sticky holds on until you wash it. wet →
- Not thisOily skin is not sticky. Sticky means things cling: sugar, glue, jam.
- SimplyThe table is sticky. Clean it with water.
Patternsticky + noun (fingers, floor, rice) · sticky with + noun · get / go sticky · stickiness
synonyms: tacky, gluey
2adjectivesurfaceMade to hold onto a surface.B1
“He left a sticky note on the fridge door.”
3adjectiveweatherOf weather: hot and damp.B2
“It was a sticky night and nobody in the house slept.”
4adjectiveawkwardAwkward and hard to get out of.B2
“Losing the receipt put us in a sticky position with the insurers.”

Remember it

STICKy → it makes things STICK

It is stick + y: honey on your fingers makes them stick to everything you touch.

hooks ontostick

Phrases it lives in

come to a sticky end — finish badly, especially through your own behaviour
sticky fingers — a habit of stealing small things

Where it comes from

Proto-Indo-European
*(s)teyg-
Middle English
stikke
English
stick
English, today
sticky

Built from

stikke · Middle English — branch, twig; kindling; mast; pale; stick, stylus
*stikkōną · Proto-Germanic — to fix, stick
*stikaną · Proto-Germanic — to stick; to stab

From stick + -y. stick comes from Middle English stikke. From Middle English sticke, stik, stikke (“branch, twig; kindling; mast; pale; stick, stylus”), from Old English sticca (“stick; peg; beam, rod”), from Proto-West Germanic stikkō, from Proto-Germanic stikkô (“pole, stick”), from stikkōną (“to fix, stick”), from stikaną (“to stick; to stab”), from Proto-Indo-European (s)teyg- (“to be sharp; to sting”). 2

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Definitions of sticky

1adjectivestickyCovered with something that holds to whatever it touches.B1

“The children came back with sticky hands and no explanation.”

Said"My fingers are all sticky from the honey; can you open the door?"
WrittenThe floor by the bar was sticky with a decade of spilled lemonade.
UsedDampen your palms before shaping the rice, or it turns sticky and clings.
ContrastSticky, not wet. Wet dries and leaves you alone; sticky holds on until you wash it. wet →
Not thisOily skin is not sticky. Sticky means things cling: sugar, glue, jam.
SimplyThe table is sticky. Clean it with water.

Patternsticky + noun (fingers, floor, rice) · sticky with + noun · get / go sticky · stickiness

synonyms: tacky, gluey

2adjectivesurfaceMade to hold onto a surface.B1

“He left a sticky note on the fridge door.”

3adjectiveweatherOf weather: hot and damp.B2

“It was a sticky night and nobody in the house slept.”

4adjectiveawkwardAwkward and hard to get out of.B2

“Losing the receipt put us in a sticky position with the insurers.”