STICKLE

stickle. Stickle, v.i. to strive, contest, take pains, trim

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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. 1. To separate combatants by intervening.
When he 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. 2. 2. To contend, contest, or altercate, esp. in a pertinacious manner on insufficient grounds.
Fortune, as she 's wont, turned fickle, And for the foe began to stickle. Hudibras. While for paltry punk they roar and stickle. Dryden. The obstinacy with which he stickles for the wrong. Hazlitt. 3. 3. To play fast and loose; to pass from one side to the other; to trim.