stickling

Stickle \Stic"kle\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Stickled}; p. pr. & vb.
   n. {Stickling}.] [Probably fr. OE. stightlen, sti?tlen, to
   dispose, arrange, govern, freq. of stihten, AS. stihtan: cf.
   G. stiften to found, to establish.]
   1. To separate combatants by intervening. [Obs.]
      [1913 Webster]

            When he [the angel] sees half of the Christians
            killed, and the rest in a fair way of being routed,
            he stickles betwixt the remainder of God's host and
            the race of fiends.                   --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To contend, contest, or altercate, esp. in a pertinacious
      manner on insufficient grounds.
      [1913 Webster]

            Fortune, as she 's wont, turned fickle,
            And for the foe began to stickle.     --Hudibras.
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            While for paltry punk they roar and stickle.
                                                  --Dryden.
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            The obstinacy with which he stickles for the wrong.
                                                  --Hazlitt.
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   3. To play fast and loose; to pass from one side to the
      other; to trim.
      [1913 Webster]
    

43 Moby Thesaurus words for "stickling":
      bashful, bashfulness, boggle, boggling, cautious, compunction,
      demur, demurral, demurring, diffidence, diffident, falter,
      faltering, hesitance, hesitancy, hesitant, hesitating, hesitation,
      jibbing, modest, modesty, objection, pause, protest, qualm,
      qualm of conscience, qualmish, qualmishness, recoil, scruple,
      scrupling, scrupulosity, scrupulous, scrupulousness,
      shilly-shallying, shrinking, shy, shyness, squeamish, sticking,
      straining, tentative, timid