I.verbCOLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
be stuck/caught/held up in traffic
▪ Sorry I’m late – I was stuck in traffic.
carrot and stick approach
▪ the government’s carrot and stick approach in getting young people to find jobs
cocktail stick
fish stick
French stick
gear stick
get sth caught/stuck etc
▪ She got her foot caught in the wire.
joss stick
keep to/stick to a plan
▪ We’re sticking to our original plan.
Memory Stick
pogo stick
remain/stay/stick in your memory (=be remembered for a long time)
▪ That day will remain in my memory forever.
sb's ears stick out (=they are noticeable because they do not lie flat against someone's head)
▪ If my hair is too short, you can see that my ears stick out.
shooting stick
stick figure
stick insect
▪ young models who look like stick insects are very thin
stick man
stick of celery
▪ a stick of celery
stick shift
stick to a diet (=continue to follow a diet)
▪ Most people find it hard to stick to a diet.
stick to the facts (=say only what you know is true)
▪ Just stick to the facts when the police interview you.
stick to your principles (=act according to them, even when this is difficult)
▪ Throughout this time, he stuck to his principles and spoke out against injustice.
stick to your story (=keep saying it is true)
▪ He didn’t believe her at first, but she stuck to her story.
stick to/go by the rulesinformal (= obey them)
▪ We all have to stick to the rules.
sticking point
▪ North Korea’s refusal had long been a sticking point.
stuck in a rut
▪ I was stuck in a rut and decided to look for a new job.
stuck in...traffic jam
▪ We were stuck in a traffic jam for two hours.
stuck out...tongue
▪ The girl scowled at me, then stuck out her tongue.
stuck together through thick and thin
▪ Then, families stuck together through thick and thin.
stuck...morass
▪ They were stuck in a morass of paperwork.
swizzle stick
walking stick
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
around
▪ Most don't stick around long enough.
▪ It all goes merrily or unhappily along whether you stick around to watch or not.
▪ She liked to stick around, see the results, maybe enjoy some off-camera larks in the back office.
▪ He also has a lucrative five-year contract at Hilton that makes it worth his while to stick around.
▪ They should bloody well have stuck around till we turned up.
▪ They announced that they wanted to talk to everyone, and they asked everyone to stick around for a while.
▪ There was some problem about him getting paid so he stuck around.
▪ Why do beneficial bugs stick around?
fast
▪ It involves wearing a suit covered with velcro hooks, which then sticks fast to a velcro covered target.
▪ It was summer, and the door, which was rarely opened, must have swelled in place and stuck fast.
▪ After he had hit, Silva chased up the hill to establish that his ball had stuck fast to the putting surface.
▪ But once established, life stuck fast.
▪ We are an odd collection assembled here, stuck fast like stubborn limpets to that eastern shore throughout the winter.
▪ They stick fast, round here.
in
▪ There is comfort to be had in sticking with what is most tangible.
▪ So don't hang around ... get stuck in!
▪ You have got just to find some place and stay there and get stuck in.
▪ Against the superlative archers of Ulthuan my inclination is to get stuck in as quickly as possible.
▪ That's commendable in some ways but good forward play depends on honest commitment with everyone getting stuck in.
▪ Half your army wants to hang back and shoot, the other half wants to get stuck in as quickly as possible.
▪ What a lousy place for children to be stuck in.
▪ A Mob of even five Boar Boyz is potentially very strong and can get stuck in once your core units are committed.
just
▪ Just stick around here until we can think of something.
▪ Just stick with today; is what he recommends.
▪ Why doesn't one just stick to the ordinary, real time that we understand?
▪ Why not just stick with egg rolls and pot stickers, which most kitchens can handle with relative ease?
▪ I know it's not easy at first, so you just stick with us.
▪ I just stuck it in there.
▪ He offers me a free go too but I just stick my nose in the air and say no thanks.
▪ Some of us just stick to the shadows and sneak by.
out
▪ He grimaced and scratched his short, curly black hair where it stuck out from under his tartan cap.
▪ You are horrified to see a small foot sticking out from behind your rear tire.
▪ Typical of young shearwaters, it was just a ball of grey down with a beak sticking out.
▪ Before that, Donahue climbed down the iron rungs sticking out the sides of the manhole.
▪ Under his arm he carried a large portfolio of drawings and she saw that he had pencils sticking out from his pocket.
▪ Say you were stuck out in the Sonoran wilderness at high noon in summer, lost, thirsty and tired.
▪ They can also be distinguished by their almost globular shape and the long protruding remnant of the style sticking out on top.
▪ A real pilot tossed dynamite sticks out the window of his Cessna.
to
▪ The record of negotiating - and sticking to - regional specialisation in basic industries has not been impressive.
▪ Some diets are easier to stick to than others; some give better results than others.
▪ Don't paint short nails with dark colours. Stick to very pale or clear shades.
▪ Its leaders have policies they want to stick to.
▪ Why do I find it so hard to stick to?
together
▪ Nicola and Emily stuck together and together they stuck to Richard, content to be a part of it all.
▪ The key was lineage; members of the Anglo-Saxon ascendancy stuck together.
▪ Some diets are coated by the manufacturer to prevent the pellets sticking together during autoclaving.
▪ The oil caused the birds' feathers to stick together and hurt their ability to fly.
▪ This technique involves nudging two or more zona-free 8- to 16-cell embryos together in culture until they stick together.
▪ They stick together, and they stick close.
▪ We've just got to pull ourselves together and stick together and we can pull out of this.
▪ Rebelling against the manager that formed them, the girls decided to stick together and make their own choices.
up
▪ When they'd stuck up the paintings, which made the room less like a chalky concrete box, they ran downstairs.
▪ He pointed to a fresh cut on a scrawny root sticking up through the dust.
▪ When push came to shove, I stuck up for him.
▪ She wore black tights, and maroon socks that stuck up above her boots.
▪ A couple of years later he graduated to sticking up posters to advertise concerts.
▪ They turned their heads again when they saw the bright blue racing wheelchair sticking up out of the back seat.
▪ But there the aircraft is, its fuselage sticking up out of your house.
▪ Should I still stick up for her? &038;.
■ NOUN
car
▪ The Severn Tag is stuck inside a car windscreen.
▪ The family also sticks to used cars.
▪ Hundreds of fans at the Reading Rock Festival were stuck with their cars and vans in thick mud last night.
▪ Facilities director Rick Harris said he stopped elevator service to make sure no one would get stuck in the cars.
▪ But he seemed stuck in the car.
craw
▪ He and the son have a whole lot sticking in their craw.
▪ He was jammed up against something; there was something stuck in his craw.
finger
▪ Masklin stuck a finger in his ear and wiggled it around.
▪ You must have stuck your finger in there or something.
▪ I clenched out the light and stuck my fingers in my ears.
▪ You might have to press in material sticking out with your finger, without smearing the wood.
▪ It was so cold that it burnt her, so cold that it stuck to her fingers.
▪ Once the rope was removed, he rolled Gao Ma on to his back and again stuck a finger under his nose.
▪ It will be they who commit the most crime, it will be they who will stick two fingers up to conventional mores.
▪ George stuck out his index finger and raised his thumb.
gun
▪ He told her that being firm, sticking to one's guns in situations of this kind, always paid off.
▪ But Klein stuck to his guns.
▪ The two brothers had conversation after conversation on the theme of religion, the younger one sticking to his guns.
▪ And there was great admiration for Livingstone's transparent honesty, self-effacing modesty and determination to stick to his guns.
▪ Spenser should have stuck to his guns and been satisfied with unity of design.
▪ Whether I'd stuck to my guns or not, it had been a harrowing experience and I felt abused.
▪ The clubs should have stuck to their guns.
hair
▪ He grimaced and scratched his short, curly black hair where it stuck out from under his tartan cap.
▪ She's got this cute little duffle coat on and a bobble hat with her hair sticking out the bottom.
▪ And I usually pin my hair up and stick it under a baseball cap.
▪ She looked grotesque, a little ridiculous, with thin clumps of hair sticking out of her mouth as if she was munching.
▪ Her hair was stuck in spikes with jam.
▪ His red hair stuck out at all angles.
▪ His black hair sticks out from wind and rain.
▪ A hair was stuck to it, a red one, the boy's.
hand
▪ Feeling small and lousy, not knowing what to do; fit for nothing, not even to stick out your hand.
▪ He stuck his hands into his pockets, the fingers numb and red.
▪ He stuck out his hand for a handshake.
▪ I stuck out a hand and found him, and we got in and Patience gave him her address.
▪ As she did both Ellie and Patsy stuck their hands into the jar together for the delicious looking cookies.
▪ The lump pushed gently at its front and she stuck her hands in her pockets and thrust it forward.
▪ It looked as if Changez had stuck his hand into a fire and had had flesh, bone and sinew melted together.
▪ The man takes a plastic tub of something and sticks his hands in it.
head
▪ I was coming through from my bathroom, so I stuck my head round the door.
▪ I stuck my head out of the window and took deep breaths of the fragrant air.
▪ The Campbell's all-black window swished down and evil Jim stuck his head out.
▪ The chestnut colt stuck its head in through the open window to lick her hand with its warm tongue.
▪ But what sticks in my head, ridiculously, is the cabinet pudding.
▪ Those drills where they make us stick our heads between our legs?
▪ A sigh of relief whistled through his teeth as he stuck his head into the pantry.
▪ At one point I almost had to stick my head out the window.
jam
▪ Her hair was stuck in spikes with jam.
▪ Congestion makes things worse: cars stuck in traffic jams pollute three times as much as those on the open road.
mind
▪ I think those types of things stick in children's minds, so I didn't want her there.
▪ Yet the one small doubt stuck in her mind like a burr in tweed.
▪ But it stuck in my mind.
▪ It must have stuck in her mind, that an honest person might act out of character when severely threatened.
▪ It is not surprising that phrases do not stick in the mind.
▪ One incident that has always stuck in my mind was when I dove for my foxhole at the opening mortar round.
▪ One boy,, really sticks out in my mind.
▪ Perhaps the image is just so startling that it sticks in our minds.
mud
▪ If he'd gone right down, he'd have stuck in the mud, and been out of the tide.
▪ One day while sailing down the Mississippi the Diamond Joe became stuck in mud.
neck
▪ You don't have to stick your neck out in meetings.
▪ The experts avoid sticking their own necks out.
▪ He'd stuck his neck out all right, but not as much as he'd led Holman to believe.
▪ She listened to his ideas, had even stuck her neck out to champion some of his more radical plans.
▪ And many economists are reluctant to stick their necks out.
▪ Let Bixby stick his neck out for once, he thought as he stared wearily at his folded hands.
▪ So I have decided to stick my neck out and to make some predictions for the next 30 years.
▪ I want to stick my neck out and help her.
nose
▪ He offers me a free go too but I just stick my nose in the air and say no thanks.
▪ Hairs sticking out of his nose and ears.
▪ Well, why not - he was sticking his nose in everywhere else.
▪ Sammy stuck his nose in the air, delighted at such attention.
▪ But maybe he's thinking that Gerald and Les might like to know you're sticking your nose in.
▪ We all stuck our noses that much deeper into the Colonel's Sumbanese rugs.
▪ Often he was right, often I gave him a bad time for sticking his nose in.
▪ Bossy matriarch Pauline Faaahhhhler finds out she's the real grandma of Sonia's baby and sticks her nose right in.
plan
▪ It was not in him to stick to a plan.
▪ Watts says he intends to stick to his plan of serving only three terms in the House.
▪ The business world rewards those who stick to a plan.
principle
▪ She was not to know that Tina, sticking to her principles, had long ago slept with her cousin Jarvis.
▪ But we have to stick to our principles.
▪ What a revolution there would be in our behaviour and attitudes if we were to stick to those two principles!
▪ Nizan stuck to his principles, but after 1939 he became a political refugee.
▪ On receiving the petition demanding Outram's resignation they stuck to the principle of laissez-faire.
▪ Eddi Reader is one who sticks to the principles established in her old band Fairground Attraction.
▪ Had I stuck to my principles or had I simply followed orders?
▪ May we come to respect ourselves for sticking to our principles and living our lives with honesty and integrity.
rule
▪ I'd stuck to the rules arid nothing had happened.
▪ That government said at the summit it was sticking to the rules, and then suggested afterward it would not not.
▪ Voice over Failure to stick to the safety rules is simply playing with fire.
▪ It was all right if she was hours late, but Henry had to stick to the rules.
story
▪ Mrs Nowak and Taczek must have got to know most of the truth and stuck by the cover story.
▪ You do not have to stick to the story line.
▪ Bring in the police, the press, the king himself, and I shall stick to my story.
▪ Jay stuck to that story until Sunday morning.
▪ He had stuck to his story, that they'd quarrelled at the dance and he had left early.
throat
▪ Did he want me to eat shit or the words stick in my throat and choke me?
▪ Now he toppled over backward with the weapon stuck upright in his throat.
▪ Swallow, something sticking in my throat.
▪ It stuck in my throat and I had to cough and cough to dislodge it.
▪ While the arrows still seemed stuck in their throats they danced to right and left with short, shuffling steps.
▪ The breath was stuck in her throat and her mouth felt dry.
thumb
▪ He stuck one thumb out when the car was still a few hundred yards away.
▪ Steinkamp swam up to it and stuck her thumbs in her ears, seemingly making a childish face at it.
▪ As he stuck a sceptical thumb into a tub of rock-hard Camembert, he knew he was facing a first-class mess.
▪ The next morning, all bandaged up, I stuck out my thumb and caught a ride to Tay Ninh.
▪ I stuck my thumb in the top, pulled it off, and offered her the bottle.
tongue
▪ Stuart sighed and Linda Paterson stuck out her tongue at him.
▪ Mitchell turned around lust in time to see her stick her tongue out at him.
▪ With her eyes still crossed, she stuck her tongue out and tried to curl it upwards.
▪ He told him to stick out his tongue and held his hand.
▪ She stuck out her tongue. ` Anyway, emergency medicine is great stuff.
▪ If children on the programme stick their tongues out, we don't condemn it.
▪ Like a child sticking out its tongue, they seemed to be saying, I know something you don't know.
▪ As I watched it soar over the crossbar,.Jamir stuck his tongue out in ridicule and blew a raspberry.
traffic
▪ Slachman's stuck in traffic, but I can just about fit you in.
▪ Then his cab got stuck in traffic, for which I thanked the Lord.
▪ It follows torrential rain yesterday, which flooded roads, and caused chaos as hundreds of commuters were stuck in traffic jams.
▪ When you're stuck in traffic with Libby Purves on radio.
▪ Congestion makes things worse: cars stuck in traffic jams pollute three times as much as those on the open road.
▪ Says he was stuck in traffic.
wall
▪ I liked that picture so Marie let me cut it out and stick it on the wall.
▪ He spotted another phalanx of flies stuck to the walls.
▪ How do I know that letter you stuck in the wall really was the Professor's?
▪ Corbeling is where brick sticks out of the wall at the top of the building.
▪ His face was stuck to the wall.
▪ When he managed to see again there was a crossbow bolt sticking in the wall just by his ear.
▪ My plants look real healthy in the sun and the photos Marie's stuck on the wall are all shiny.
▪ A copy has been stuck up on the wall in the Indymedia office.
■ VERB
decide
▪ So I have decided to stick my neck out and to make some predictions for the next 30 years.
▪ Gast decided to stick around at his own expense and film as much as he could with the fighters.
▪ In the end, however, Mosbacher decided to stick with the traditional head count.
▪ At the time, Colavitti decided to stick with aerospace, and the night school degree seemed just a momentary departure.
▪ Rebelling against the manager that formed them, the girls decided to stick together and make their own choices.
▪ I decided to stick to my own boyfriend problem and leave others well enough alone.
▪ Johnson was entranced by the $ 175-per-week salary and decided to stick around.
▪ Mrs Reagan decided that she would stick to her original decision.
get
▪ Negotiators got stuck over questions such as how this market was to be monitored and regulated without corruption.
▪ Finally I got the ax to stick from ten paces.
▪ I guess Waldo must have been the codename for CorelDRAW 2 during development and it got stuck in the code.
▪ She got stuck with a 75.
▪ You have got just to find some place and stay there and get stuck in.
▪ There is no computable means of deciding which Turing machines will get stuck in this way.
▪ The young, less likely to vote, get stuck with the bill.
▪ Facilities director Rick Harris said he stopped elevator service to make sure no one would get stuck in the cars.
seem
▪ He seemed to have been stuck in this shabby, overheated room for days.
▪ President, because none of his mistakes ever seemed to stick to him.
▪ I ask you. Seem to be stuck here for a week or so.
▪ Unlike the Republicans, Clinton seems to be sticking to the operational center.
▪ But once they're there, once you've given them headroom, they seem pretty determined to stick around.
▪ But few of us seem capable of sticking to them all the time, in every situation, for ever.
▪ He tried again to look at Jenny, but his eyes seemed to stick somewhere round her neckline.
▪ The shop seems stuck in time.
tend
▪ We tended to stick together too, although no-one accused us of being colonists.
▪ When particles of dirt land on its damp surface, they tend to stick more than on a dry surface.
▪ The Black girls tended to stick together, but me, I mix with everyone, I don't care.
▪ Water molecules carry an electric charge and tend to stick to one another.
▪ When ions floating in the water happen to bump into the hard surface of the crystal, they tend to stick.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
be (caught) in a cleft stick
▪ Now the local authorities are caught in a cleft stick, hostages to their own political process.
▪ So the developing countries are caught in a cleft stick.
be (caught/locked/stuck) in a time warp
be (stuck) between a rock and a hard place
be stuck for sth
▪ Most of what they accused him of was true, and Wyden was stuck for an answer.
▪ Antony for once was stuck for words.
▪ I was stuck for an answer.
be stuck in a groove
be stuck on sb
▪ Jane's really stuck on the new boy in her class.
▪ But my mind was stuck on this Martian theory.
▪ Co. was stuck on Santa Cruz.
▪ He must, of course, be stuck on the page where I left him.
▪ I was afraid I would be stuck on the medicine for ever.
▪ Now I was stuck on my northernmost hang-up.
▪ They were stuck on the outside like cheerleaders.
be stuck with sb
▪ All four of them were stuck with us!
▪ Chutra and I were stuck with each other like binary stars.
▪ He sat thinking how he was stuck with her, how there was no privacy in this house for emergency situations.
▪ I suppose I was stuck with him, like it or not.
▪ If an organism has haemoglobin, it is stuck with it.
▪ If she was stuck with wanting a man whose background and conditioning were alien to her, then that was her problem.
▪ Now they are stuck with those higher prices.
▪ Rosenberg was stuck with 400 shirts that cost $ 4 each.
be stuck with sth
▪ We're renting the house, so we're stuck with this ugly wallpaper.
▪ All four of them were stuck with us!
▪ Chutra and I were stuck with each other like binary stars.
▪ He sat thinking how he was stuck with her, how there was no privacy in this house for emergency situations.
▪ I suppose I was stuck with him, like it or not.
▪ If an organism has haemoglobin, it is stuck with it.
▪ If she was stuck with wanting a man whose background and conditioning were alien to her, then that was her problem.
▪ Now they are stuck with those higher prices.
▪ Rosenberg was stuck with 400 shirts that cost $ 4 each.
be stuck/held fast
▪ A character who is held fast can not move or fight, and is treated as prone.
▪ Balor was struggling and writhing, but his limbs were held fast and only his thick, shapeless body could move.
▪ Persephone sprang into her arms and was held fast there.
▪ She tried to pull her hand free, but it was held fast.
▪ She tried to struggle, but she was held fast.
carrot and stick
▪ Current government strategy on unemployment has been described fairly aptly as being the carrot and stick approach.
▪ Headquarters motivates managers to meet targets in time-honoured style: carrot and stick.
▪ Like a biochemical carrot and stick, these systems generate pleasurable or painful feelings that powerfully guide behavior.
▪ Much of the success was fuelled by the multinationals responding to the combination of carrot and stick.
▪ The carrot and stick approach is to do with reward and punishment, incentives and pressures.
▪ The old carrot and stick method of keeping control is now all stick.
▪ Your level of control needs to be high enough so that your carrot and stick power matters and is taken seriously by others.
get stuck in/get stuck into sth
get the wrong end of the stick
▪ Maybe I got the wrong end of the stick. I thought she was leaving him, not the other way round.
keep/stick to the message
put/stick that in your pipe and smoke it
put/stick your head above the parapet
put/stick/get your oar in
▪ I heard him mention something about organs to another guest so I put my oar in and started such a nice conversation.
▪ She was talking to me just now, before you put your oar in.
▪ We were sorting it out quite nicely until you stuck your oar in.
stick out/stand out a mile
stick/poke your nose into sth
▪ No one wants the government sticking its nose into the personal business of citizens.
▪ Or maybe they resented a stranger poking his nose into their affairs?
stick/put etc the knife in/into someone
stick/stand out like a sore thumb
▪ You can't come to the restaurant dressed in jeans. You'd stick out like a sore thumb.
▪ For these reasons feminist values stand out like a sore thumb.
▪ Having a whole batch together should make an odd one stick out like a sore thumb.
▪ Having said that, in some of the bits of Shoreditch I passed through I stuck out like a sore thumb.
▪ I mean, it sticks out like a sore thumb.
▪ There's no cover, and - as happened to me - any stranger sticks out like a sore thumb.
▪ We stand out like sore thumbs.
▪ You stick out like a sore thumb in that ghastly uniform, Charles.
stick/stay in sb's mind
▪ But it stuck in my mind.
▪ I think those types of things stick in children's minds, so I didn't want her there.
▪ It is not surprising that phrases do not stick in the mind.
▪ It must have stuck in her mind, that an honest person might act out of character when severely threatened.
▪ Last year, 7-21, that stays in your mind.
▪ One incident that has always stuck in my mind was when I dove for my foxhole at the opening mortar round.
▪ There are, as always with the work of Ralph Gibson, images that stick in the mind.
▪ Yet the one small doubt stuck in her mind like a burr in tweed.
use/wield the big stick
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ "What should I do with these?" "Oh, just stick them anywhere."
▪ Stick this note to Chris's computer so he sees it when he gets back.
▪ Clark called him "Mule," because he looked like a pack mule, and the name stuck.
▪ I'm sticking.
▪ I stuck the pictures in a drawer and forgot all about them.
▪ It took hours to stick all these photos in my album.
▪ Paul stuck two pieces of paper together.
▪ Peter was very hot, and his shirt was sticking to his back.
▪ Put some butter on the pan so the cookies don't stick.
▪ She stuck her chewing gum on the bottom of the chair.
▪ She pressed down the flap of the envelope, but it didn't stick.
▪ The doctor had to stick a tube down my throat in order to examine my stomach.
▪ The vase broke into several pieces, but I was able to stick them all back together.
▪ They stuck pins into a map to show where the enemy's camps were.
▪ This cupboard door keeps sticking.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And marriage developed everywhere to encourage men to stick around their children.
▪ I guess Waldo must have been the codename for CorelDRAW 2 during development and it got stuck in the code.
▪ It was only a little flurry, but it was wet, clumping gobs of snow that stuck to the windshield.
▪ Mind you, I don't suppose you would really want to stick them in the top of the Christmas pudding either.
▪ Teenagers can not wreak that kind of havoc when they are stuck inside.
▪ The experts avoid sticking their own necks out.
▪ They announced that they wanted to talk to everyone, and they asked everyone to stick around for a while.
II.nounCOLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
big
▪ And a big stick comes in useful too.
▪ In place of a big stick, his is an approach that seeks to balance many perspectives on the same situation.
▪ This is the big stick treatment for violent criminals which is traditionally associated with an extreme Right-wing attitude.
▪ Teddy Roosevelt whittled a big stick and beat on em for six years.
▪ Monroe doctrine lives on as Bush wields big stick.
▪ It's called a big stick.
▪ After the big stick came the carrot: he offered to pay my first month's rent at a hostel he knew.
▪ Jones carried the big stick, going 3-for-5 and scoring twice.
long
▪ At Yanto's suggestion they had each gone off and found themselves a long thin stick apiece.
▪ The tourists who were already there had long plastic sticks they were poking down into the fenced area.
▪ Tended by a woman with a long stick.
▪ I poked at its decomposing body with a long driftwood stick, working to turn it over.
▪ It pulled a long curved stick out of a holster.
▪ After breakfast the male inmates went outside to the prison yard for exercises, which included jumping over long bamboo sticks.
▪ From time to time attendants with long sticks would poke and stir to make it burn faster.
old
▪ Maybe I had exaggerated things and Gilly wasn't such a bad old stick after all.
▪ We tie up with an old stick and some rope, and no problem.
▪ Frederick was always such an old stick.
▪ Me, I stick to my old sticks; and I think that the new breed of carbon-fibre rods are characterless.
▪ I knew I was taking some rare old stick mentally, though.
▪ She heard it from that dry old stick, Simpson.
▪ The old carrot and stick method of keeping control is now all stick.
▪ Why hadn't Maxie thought of building a new house there, the old stick in the mud?
shooting
▪ Favourite walking and shooting sticks by the connecting bedroom door.
▪ One woman has brought the blunt ended equivalent of a shooting stick, which turns out not to be needed.
▪ She was sitting on a shooting stick.
stout
▪ The greybeards made a quite unnecessary fuss about this and I was forced to employ my stout stick.
▪ The employment of a stout stick is recommended.
thin
▪ At Yanto's suggestion they had each gone off and found themselves a long thin stick apiece.
▪ They carried thin sticks that may have been riding crops, which they switched against their boots impatiently.
▪ What was that clutter of thin whitish sticks in one hut?
▪ When it is quite dry, use a thin stick or toothpick to draw your pattern on the egg in glue.
▪ In his hands he holds a snuff box, shaped like a small quiver, and a thin stick.
▪ They guide them with the flick of a thin stick or a gentle word.
▪ He was built like a basketball player; tall and as thin as a stick insect.
walking
▪ The pensioner was so angry, he tripped up the mugger with his walking stick and grabbed the book back.
▪ A hand separated itself from the walking stick.
▪ All they will see is the walking stick.
▪ Favourite walking and shooting sticks by the connecting bedroom door.
▪ Milton ward Tories were so impressed by his la-de-da-accent and gold-plated walking stick that they made him social secretary.
▪ Hedgerow briars are best left for walking sticks.
▪ There will be a pole lathe on the go, and the Adams Axeman making walking sticks and baskets.
▪ She looked across at the half-hidden walking stick again.
white
▪ All it tells us is that a man walked through the wood and threw a white stick down.
▪ A neighbor, Boab, helps Sammy paint the white stick he has fashioned from a mop handle.
▪ He said he saw no sign of a white stick until after the accident when it was seen to be folded up.
▪ The heat made her white dress stick to her.
▪ I would feel silly saying the same thing to a white stick!
▪ More wheelchairs but no white sticks tonight.
▪ She now had a collapsible white metal stick she used quite defensively when out walking.
▪ Millions of viewers saw presenter Howard Leader take the tumble wearing dark glasses and clutching a white stick.
wooden
▪ Read in studio A man has been charged after a policeman was stabbed in the eye with a wooden stick.
▪ Like ranks of drummers beating upon skulls with wooden sticks.
▪ The whole squad would line up and hit the new cap's backside with a wooden stick until it became quite painful.
▪ Skewer 2 beef cubes on each wooden stick.
▪ Traditional rural dowsers used wooden sticks to locate underground water.
■ NOUN
celery
▪ Chilli beans Fry one chopped onion and one chopped celery stick in three tablespoons of oil.
cinnamon
▪ Leave to cool and remove the cinnamon stick.
▪ Remove cloves, bay leaves and cinnamon sticks.
▪ Add bay leaves, chili peppers, coriander seed, juniper berries, cinnamon stick, and thyme.
▪ Some recipes suggest adding a cinnamon stick, whole cloves and / or whole allspice.
cocktail
▪ Remove the cocktail sticks from the salmon olives and place the olives on top of the sauce.
▪ For the dragonflies, mould small curved lengths and mark on segments with a cocktail stick.
▪ Roll the fillets up and secure with a cocktail stick.
▪ Roll one rasher around each prune and secure with a cocktail stick. 3.
▪ Mark lines of bandages on to the mummy's limbs and head with a pointed cocktail stick.
▪ Prop up with a cocktail stick from behind if necessary.
▪ Spread the skin side of each slice with the mustard, roll up and secure carefully with cocktail sticks.
▪ Etching - dip a cocktail stick in lemon juice or vinegar and scratch away the colour when the dyed egg is cold.
gear
▪ And between us, the bloody Rugby World Cup kept falling through the seats to knock my hand from the gear stick.
▪ Donna grabbed the gear stick, simultaneously pressing hard on the brake.
▪ In desperation the Minister leaned forward and grabbed the automatic gear stick, throwing it into reverse.
hockey
▪ Piggie involved hitting a wooden wedge with a type of hockey stick.
▪ One looked at her and then fell back heavily, flinging her hockey stick to the side.
▪ Pieces of pine from apple cases became cricket bats, tennis rackets or hockey sticks and gave them endless hours of pleasure.
▪ Dan exclaimed; he had been hit in the jaw with a hockey stick, and his lip had swelled.
insect
▪ To put it another way, ancestors of stick insects that did not resemble sticks did not leave descendants.
▪ Children admiring Living World stick insects.
▪ One of them, anyway - the stick insect couldn't have escaped.
▪ Eggs, caterpillars, chrysalids, stick insects and equipment are available for sale from the showroom.
▪ He was built like a basketball player; tall and as thin as a stick insect.
▪ The initial resemblance of the ancestral stick insect to a stick must have been very remote.
▪ When I was young I was like a stick insect, then at fourteen or fifteen I put on weight.
shift
▪ Guys who love the way a stick shift or a remote feels in their hands.
■ VERB
beat
▪ Buddie had beaten her with a stick until her mouth bled and she could barely stand.
▪ We fought them for control of the garbage mounds by the North River. Beat them off with sticks.
▪ When they could not get money from the machine they beat her with sticks.
▪ My torso and my wrists felt as though Edna had beaten them with sticks.
▪ McSorley lined it up before beating Potvin on the stick side at 18: 23 in the first for a 1-1 tie.
▪ The young suspects then allegedly kicked and punched punched the infant and, allegedly, possibly beat him with a stick.
carry
▪ And he was carrying no thunder-and-fire stick to inflict pain on them.
▪ Throngs of people moved along the sidewalks carrying walking sticks, packages, umbrellas.
▪ Bongwater's Ann Magnuson carries the incandescent incense stick for the even.
▪ They carried thin sticks that may have been riding crops, which they switched against their boots impatiently.
▪ A small Masai boy, carrying two whittled sticks, joins her and they walk together.
▪ Jones carried the big stick, going 3-for-5 and scoring twice.
▪ Burns left the room and returned, carrying a stick.
▪ As standard, every diver carries a light stick, glowing colours moving around a pinnacle that was previously dived at dusk.
hit
▪ They hit me with a stick.
▪ First a student hit the stick and it flew up in the air.
▪ I remember the teacher who hit me with a stick.
▪ Then the teacher put the newspaper on top of the stick, smoothed down the paper and hit the stick.
▪ Because the teacher made the paper smooth before hitting the stick, there was almost no air under the paper.
▪ Then somebody hit him with a stick while he struggled to get loose of all those hands.
▪ Ask one of the students to hit the stick.
▪ Ask the students to guess what will happen if you hit the stick. 3.
hold
▪ He holds up a stick for all to see.
▪ The newspaper does not seem to be heavy enough to hold down the stick.
▪ The boy was making straight for the stone, holding his stick up and making little darting glances all round him.
▪ Hughes held the stick aloft, a coil of silver at its head.
▪ When you go in and out, you feel like somebody is holding a stick....
▪ He holds his ink stick upright.
▪ He is holding a stick which has feathers attached.
▪ Each Metropolitan held his locust stick in front of him.
move
▪ In addition, the elevator may overbalance so that the force needed to move forwards on the stick is abnormally high.
▪ If this happens, it is important to move the stick forwards sufficiently to ensure that the glider does not re-stall.
▪ As the wing drops and the spin starts, he move forwards on the stick, leaving the rudder applied.
▪ They go on jumping and crawling as the King moves the stick.
▪ As the model rolls from inverted to normal flight, move the throttle stick back to the normal position.
pick
▪ He picks up sticks and sits down to eat them.
▪ With his stomach turning, he picked up a stick, which he jammed into the glove.
▪ She picked up the stick and hurled it, skimming it low over the shallow pools left by the tide.
▪ I scratched the back of my neck, picked up the cue stick, and tried an easy shot.
▪ As last year, bin bags and litter picking sticks will be provided.
▪ He ripped up grass; tore apart moss; picked up pebbles, sticks, and twigs.
place
▪ What happened? 2. Place the stick back on the table and cover it with the newspaper.
poke
▪ They poke burning sticks at me.
▪ Two small boys trapped a crab, repeatedly poking it with a stick until it went belly up and played dead.
▪ It will then learn to poke sticks in termite mounds when it is hungry.
pull
▪ He kept pulling on the stick, then swung away and made to carry it off.
▪ The demonstration may be repeated by pulling the stick out 4-5 inches more.
▪ It pulled a long curved stick out of a holster.
▪ Obviously, you pull the cyclic stick back to lower the tail and impart a rearwards force to stop the forwards movement.
▪ He raised the gun to the back of the Captain's head, imploring him to pull back on the stick.
throw
▪ The man threw more sticks and it jumped again, ecstatic, diving and swimming, in and out.
▪ He can hit a thrown ball with a stick of wood.
▪ Male speaker Hundreds of rioters were throwing sticks and stones and shooting.
▪ He turned around, threw away the stick, and walked back towards the hospital.
▪ He had thrown the blood-covered stick into the fire, then washed himself and his clothes.
▪ Finally he stood upright, cracked his back, and threw the stick into the trash.
▪ It was cut off, abruptly. probably Simon had thrown a stick for him.
use
▪ Children, especially boys, will construct a fake gun using anything from sticks to a piece of toast.
▪ We used a stick or shovel to hit the wire and break the strands apart.
▪ To tell the truth, I continued to use the stick for longer than was strictly necessary.
▪ Most of the time, though, we used sticks that my sisters collected from the woods.
▪ When it is quite dry, use a thin stick or toothpick to draw your pattern on the egg in glue.
▪ Because he insisted on using a stick shift.
▪ Similarly, a child at play may use a stick as an aeroplane or a settee as a car.
▪ Single bamboo canes are also used as rhythm sticks in many parts of the world, including Polynesia and the Amazon Basin.
walk
▪ He walked with a stick, but sometimes he would throw it away and skip.
▪ Throngs of people moved along the sidewalks carrying walking sticks, packages, umbrellas.
▪ It walked with two sticks. ` Ready?
▪ A walking stick is good for balance in the water and on the arduous grades.
▪ Made by Brigg Umbrellas, with a handle matching one of the Brigg walking sticks in the King's wardrobe.
▪ Toasting their successful ascent to the summit, she lifts her flask in the air, and father waves his walking stick.
▪ With the aid of a silver-mounted walking stick, she was limping; yet her body was still very straight.
▪ Two walking sticks used to hurt his pride.
wave
▪ Three men stood in the entrance of the courtyard, waving sticks.
▪ Two shepherds took off after him, waving their sticks.
▪ Toasting their successful ascent to the summit, she lifts her flask in the air, and father waves his walking stick.
wield
▪ Monroe doctrine lives on as Bush wields big stick.
▪ Shields fired when Kao, who was drunk, advanced at him wielding a stick, authorities said.
▪ Apart from wielding the stick of trade sanctions - a worrying measure - the main option will be the carrot of cash transfers.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
be (caught) in a cleft stick
▪ Now the local authorities are caught in a cleft stick, hostages to their own political process.
▪ So the developing countries are caught in a cleft stick.
be (caught/locked/stuck) in a time warp
be (stuck) between a rock and a hard place
be stuck for sth
▪ Most of what they accused him of was true, and Wyden was stuck for an answer.
▪ Antony for once was stuck for words.
▪ I was stuck for an answer.
be stuck on sb
▪ Jane's really stuck on the new boy in her class.
▪ But my mind was stuck on this Martian theory.
▪ Co. was stuck on Santa Cruz.
▪ He must, of course, be stuck on the page where I left him.
▪ I was afraid I would be stuck on the medicine for ever.
▪ Now I was stuck on my northernmost hang-up.
▪ They were stuck on the outside like cheerleaders.
be stuck with sb
▪ All four of them were stuck with us!
▪ Chutra and I were stuck with each other like binary stars.
▪ He sat thinking how he was stuck with her, how there was no privacy in this house for emergency situations.
▪ I suppose I was stuck with him, like it or not.
▪ If an organism has haemoglobin, it is stuck with it.
▪ If she was stuck with wanting a man whose background and conditioning were alien to her, then that was her problem.
▪ Now they are stuck with those higher prices.
▪ Rosenberg was stuck with 400 shirts that cost $ 4 each.
be stuck with sth
▪ We're renting the house, so we're stuck with this ugly wallpaper.
▪ All four of them were stuck with us!
▪ Chutra and I were stuck with each other like binary stars.
▪ He sat thinking how he was stuck with her, how there was no privacy in this house for emergency situations.
▪ I suppose I was stuck with him, like it or not.
▪ If an organism has haemoglobin, it is stuck with it.
▪ If she was stuck with wanting a man whose background and conditioning were alien to her, then that was her problem.
▪ Now they are stuck with those higher prices.
▪ Rosenberg was stuck with 400 shirts that cost $ 4 each.
be stuck/held fast
▪ A character who is held fast can not move or fight, and is treated as prone.
▪ Balor was struggling and writhing, but his limbs were held fast and only his thick, shapeless body could move.
▪ Persephone sprang into her arms and was held fast there.
▪ She tried to pull her hand free, but it was held fast.
▪ She tried to struggle, but she was held fast.
carrot and stick
▪ Current government strategy on unemployment has been described fairly aptly as being the carrot and stick approach.
▪ Headquarters motivates managers to meet targets in time-honoured style: carrot and stick.
▪ Like a biochemical carrot and stick, these systems generate pleasurable or painful feelings that powerfully guide behavior.
▪ Much of the success was fuelled by the multinationals responding to the combination of carrot and stick.
▪ The carrot and stick approach is to do with reward and punishment, incentives and pressures.
▪ The old carrot and stick method of keeping control is now all stick.
▪ Your level of control needs to be high enough so that your carrot and stick power matters and is taken seriously by others.
get stuck in/get stuck into sth
get the wrong end of the stick
▪ Maybe I got the wrong end of the stick. I thought she was leaving him, not the other way round.
keep/stick to the message
put/stick that in your pipe and smoke it
put/stick your head above the parapet
put/stick/get your oar in
▪ I heard him mention something about organs to another guest so I put my oar in and started such a nice conversation.
▪ She was talking to me just now, before you put your oar in.
▪ We were sorting it out quite nicely until you stuck your oar in.
stick out/stand out a mile
stick/poke your nose into sth
▪ No one wants the government sticking its nose into the personal business of citizens.
▪ Or maybe they resented a stranger poking his nose into their affairs?
stick/put etc the knife in/into someone
stick/stand out like a sore thumb
▪ You can't come to the restaurant dressed in jeans. You'd stick out like a sore thumb.
▪ For these reasons feminist values stand out like a sore thumb.
▪ Having a whole batch together should make an odd one stick out like a sore thumb.
▪ Having said that, in some of the bits of Shoreditch I passed through I stuck out like a sore thumb.
▪ I mean, it sticks out like a sore thumb.
▪ There's no cover, and - as happened to me - any stranger sticks out like a sore thumb.
▪ We stand out like sore thumbs.
▪ You stick out like a sore thumb in that ghastly uniform, Charles.
stick/stay in sb's mind
▪ But it stuck in my mind.
▪ I think those types of things stick in children's minds, so I didn't want her there.
▪ It is not surprising that phrases do not stick in the mind.
▪ It must have stuck in her mind, that an honest person might act out of character when severely threatened.
▪ Last year, 7-21, that stays in your mind.
▪ One incident that has always stuck in my mind was when I dove for my foxhole at the opening mortar round.
▪ There are, as always with the work of Ralph Gibson, images that stick in the mind.
▪ Yet the one small doubt stuck in her mind like a burr in tweed.
use/wield the big stick
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a walking stick
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Stick insects look like sticks and so are saved from being eaten by birds.
▪ He didn't half go into him with his stick.
▪ He dipped the oil stick in again.
▪ Julitis disgustedly cleaned it frorn her shoe with a stick.
▪ The hon. Gentleman has got the wrong end of the stick about how they work.
▪ Using his thick bill, he played with the leaves, sticks, and grass stems at the edge of his nest.