What is "stickled"

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.]

   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.

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. To play fast and loose; to pass from one side to the other; to trim.

vb. (en-past of: stickle)