Sticky Meaning
/ˈstɪki/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
adjTending to stick; able to adhere via the drying of a viscous substance.
adjDifficult, awkward.
Sentence Examples
Clerks with sticky fingers won't keep their jobs for long.
The politician had sticky fingers, and 5% of every contract ended in his pocket.
What's all that sticky stuff on the carpet?
CEFR Practice Quiz
The honey was so ____ that it dripped slowly from the spoon.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The wood surface was quite ____ because some of the fresh honey had spilled on it during breakfast.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree English stick English -y English sticky From stick + -y.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Particularly sticky books are cleaned with methylated spirits."
— 2016 June 5, Thomas Manch, “CuriousCity: What happens to my library books when I return them?”, in Stuff, archived from the original on 04 May 2019:
"GCN is not just another clipboard of polite press releases. GCN is the sticky questions, the sweet moments, and the dirty stories that make up our lives."
— 1989 December 24, Abe Rybeck, “Liberation Without Permission, Pleasure Without Apology”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 24, page 5:
"Among the books Mum brought me to read when I was a child were The Secret Garden and A Little Princess, as well as their author Frances Hodgson Burnett's smash hit, Little Lord Fauntleroy. I haven't met an adult my age who has read this book but I did so several times. It's a sticky book, guided by that strange Victorian obsession with "the little mother" – the same obsession that Virginia Woolf, a child of Victorian parents, grappled with in her diaries and her fiction. Somehow, though, I learned to overlook the archaic, to be open to the oddnesses of different eras, and to read for something else."
— 2020 June 25, Tegan Bennett Daylight, “My mother taught me the joy of reading. I remember her through books”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 May 2023:
"Salmond studied medieval Scottish history as well as economics at university so he cannot say he has not had fair warning – it was even more turbulent and bloody than England at that time – and plenty of Scotland's kings and leaders came to a sticky end. If it happens this time, it won't be dull."
— 2014 September 8, Michael White, “Roll up, roll up! The Amazing Salmond will show a Scotland you won't believe”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 13 Oct 2022:
"The baby was due in December and the hot, sticky August weather was making Jane uncomfortable."
— 2008, Robert K. Fitts, Wally Yonamine: The Man Who Changed Japanese Baseball:
Explore More A1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The honey was so ____ that it dripped slowly from the spoon.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The wood surface was quite ____ because some of the fresh honey had spilled on it during breakfast.