n. [ OE. ban, bon, bone + stickle prickle, sting. See Bone, n., Stickleback. ] (Zool.) A small fish, the three-spined stickleback. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) A stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Stickled p. pr. & vb. n. Stickling. ] [ Probably fr. OE. stightlen, sti&unr_;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. [ 1913 Webster ]

While for paltry punk they roar and stickle. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

The obstinacy with which he stickles for the wrong. Hazlitt. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To play fast and loose; to pass from one side to the other; to trim. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. To separate, as combatants; hence, to quiet, to appease, as disputants. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Which [ question ] violently they pursue,
Nor stickled would they be. Drayton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To intervene in; to stop, or put an end to, by intervening; hence, to arbitrate. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

They ran to him, and, pulling him back by force, stickled that unnatural fray. Sir P. Sidney. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. stick, v. t. & i. ] A shallow rapid in a river; also, the current below a waterfall. [ Obs. or Prov. Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Patient anglers, standing all the day
Near to some shallow stickle or deep bay. W. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. & Prov E. stickle a prickle, spine, sting (AS. sticel) + back. See Stick, v. t., and cf. Banstickle. ] (Zool.) Any one of numerous species of small fishes of the genus Gasterosteus and allied genera. The back is armed with two or more sharp spines. They inhabit both salt and brackish water, and construct curious nests. Called also sticklebag, sharpling, and prickleback. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Stickle, v. t. ] One who stickles. Specifically: -- [ 1913 Webster ]

(a) One who arbitrates a duel; a sidesman to a fencer; a second; an umpire. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Basilius, the judge, appointed sticklers and trumpets whom the others should obey. Sir P. Sidney. [ 1913 Webster ]

Our former chiefs, like sticklers of the war,
First sought to inflame the parties, then to poise. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

(b) One who pertinaciously contends for some trifling things, as a point of etiquette; an unreasonable, obstinate contender; as, a stickler for ceremony. [ 1913 Webster ]

The Tory or High-church were the greatest sticklers against the exorbitant proceedings of King James II. Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]