Stickle

stickle
    v 1: dispute or argue stubbornly (especially minor points)
    

Stickle \Stic"kle\, v. t.
   1. To separate, as combatants; hence, to quiet, to appease,
      as disputants. [Obs.]
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            Which [question] violently they pursue,
            Nor stickled would they be.           --Drayton.
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   2. To intervene in; to stop, or put an end to, by
      intervening; hence, to arbitrate. [Obs.]
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            They ran to him, and, pulling him back by force,
            stickled that unnatural fray.         --Sir P.
                                                  Sidney.
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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.]
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            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.
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   2. To contend, contest, or altercate, esp. in a pertinacious
      manner on insufficient grounds.
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            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.
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Stickle \Stic"kle\, n. [Cf. {stick}, v. t. & i.]
   A shallow rapid in a river; also, the current below a
   waterfall. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.]
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         Patient anglers, standing all the day
         Near to some shallow stickle or deep bay. --W. Browne.
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71 Moby Thesaurus words for "stickle":
      abrupt, arduous, back down, balance, balk, blench, boggle, contend,
      contend for, debate, deliberate, demur, die hard, falter, fear,
      fight for, fight shy of, flinch, gag, hang back, hang off,
      have qualms, hem and haw, hesitate, hold off, hold out, hover,
      hum and haw, jib, kick, make bones about, not budge, object, pause,
      persevere, ponder, precipitate, precipitous, protest, pull back,
      quail, recoil, retreat, scruple, sheer, shilly-shally, shrink, shy,
      shy at, sideling, stall, stand out, stand pat, stick, stick at,
      stickle for, stipulate for, stop to consider, straddle the fence,
      strain, strain at, strive for, struggle for, stumble,
      take no denial, think twice about, vie for, waver, wince, withdraw,
      yield