sticky

STIK-ee/ˈstɪki/

Adjectivestickier, stickiest

Noun pluralstickies

Verbstickies, stickying, stickied

18 meanings of sticky

Practice

1
adjective
Tending to stick to surfaces, especially because a viscous substance dries and bonds to them.
The melted candy made the whole table sticky.
Pine sap is so sticky that it clings to everything it touches.
Similartacky, gooey, gummy, adhesive, gluey
Note
The literal meaning, and the one the figurative uses lean on: stick plus the ending -y, which turns a word into 'tending to' or 'full of.' It describes surfaces as readily as substances. Tape, fingers, or a library book gummed with residue can all be sticky, and such a book may be cleaned with methylated spirits. It compares regularly: stickier, stickiest.
2
adjective
Of weather: hot, windless, and humid, so that people feel damp and uncomfortable from sweating.
The sticky afternoon air left the crowd restless and irritable.
August in the city is unbearably sticky.
Similarhumid, muggy, sultry, clammy, close
Oppositedry, crisp, fresh
3
adjective
Difficult or awkward to deal with.
Negotiations reached a sticky point over who would cover the costs.
He found himself in a sticky situation with two competing deadlines.
Similarawkward, tricky, difficult, delicate, thorny
Oppositeeasy, simple, straightforward
4
adjective
Mawkishly sentimental; emotionally sweet to an excessive degree.
The film's sticky finale drew groans from the cynical audience.
Her sticky tribute speech left some listeners squirming.
Similarsentimental, mawkish, saccharine, schmaltzy, cloying
Oppositeunsentimental
5
adjective
Tending to stay the same and slow to respond to changing conditions.
Rents in the region proved sticky, holding firm despite falling demand.
Inflation expectations can be sticky once they take hold.
Similarrigid, stubborn, inflexible, sluggish
Oppositeflexible, responsive, volatile
Note
An economist's word for prices and wages that hold their level when conditions say they should move. It sits most naturally in pairs, such as sticky prices and sticky wages, and it implies friction: the value ought to adjust but lags behind. Compare the software sense of 'persistent', where staying put is the whole point and nothing is lagging.
6
adjective
Compelling enough to keep visitors or users from leaving a site, app, or page.
Designers added forums and rewards to make the platform stickier.
The app's sticky features kept users engaged well past the first session.
Similarengaging, compelling, addictive
Note
A web designer's measure of how well a site holds its visitors. A site where most visits last thirty seconds or less is, in this vocabulary, not sticky. The comparative turns up often, as in making a platform stickier, because stickiness is treated as something to be increased.
7
adjective
Fixed at the top of a list of threads or topics so that it stays in view.
The moderators kept the announcement sticky throughout the tournament.
A sticky thread at the top reminds users of the forum guidelines.
Similarpinned
Note
Message boards gave the word three jobs: this adjective, a noun for the thread itself, and a verb for the act of fixing it in place. As an adjective it can come before the noun (a sticky thread) or after the verb (the thread was made sticky). Moderators use it to keep rules and announcements from sinking under newer posts.
8
nouncountable or uncountable
A small self-adhesive note, such as a Post-it, that can be stuck to a surface.
He covered his monitor in stickies reminding him of deadlines.
Grab a sticky and jot down the phone number.
Note
A shortening of sticky note, so the adjective has simply become the noun. It is mostly counted, as in a desk covered with yellow stickies, and the plural follows the usual y-to-ies rule. The same plural also belongs to the pinned forum thread, so context decides which is meant.
9
nouncountable or uncountable
A discussion thread fixed at the top of a forum's list of topics so that it stays in view.
New users should read the sticky before posting in the main board.
The admins pinned a sticky explaining the new rules.
Note
The noun is a clipping of sticky thread, and like most such nouns it takes an article and a plural: read the sticky, or the forum's stickies. It names what the forum adjective describes, and it is where a newcomer is pointed before posting.
10
verbtransitive
To fix a forum thread at the top of a topic list so that it stays visible above other posts.
Admins usually sticky the welcome thread when a new board launches.
He stickied the FAQ to keep beginners from asking the same questions.
Similarpin
Oppositeunpin
Note
The verb behind the forum noun follows the spelling rule for verbs ending in -y: the y holds before -ing (stickying) and turns to -ied in the past (stickied). It is transitive, so a moderator stickies a thread and a thread gets stickied. It shares its idea with the forum adjective.

11
adjectivecolloquial
Tending to persist or remain rather than fading, changing, or being removed easily.
Economists worry about sticky prices that refuse to fall during a downturn.
The setting is sticky, so it keeps your choice even after a restart.
Similarpersistent, stubborn, lasting, enduring
Oppositetemporary, transient
Note
Programmers use it of a setting that survives. Choose it once and it is remembered, so the user need not set it again. The idiom is to make something sticky, as in making the printing direction sticky. The register is informal, the talk of design meetings rather than manuals. Here persistence is a feature someone builds, not a resistance someone suffers.
12
adjective
Of a window or element: appearing on every virtual desktop rather than only the one where it was opened.
Power users keep their notes app sticky so it shows on all four desktops.
The taskbar widget is sticky and remains visible no matter which workspace you switch to.
Note
A window-manager term for a window pinned to every workspace at once, so it is still there whichever virtual desktop the user switches to. The image is of something stuck to the glass while the scenery behind it changes. A sticky window behaves much like a persistent setting: it stays put while everything around it changes.
13
adjectivecolloquial
Resembling a stick, or having the qualities typical of a stick.
His growth spurt left him gangly and sticky, his arms and legs as long and thin as broom handles.
He sketched a sticky cartoon man out of straight lines.
Similarspindly, skinny, scrawny, lanky
Note
Formed from the noun stick plus -y, in the pattern of twiggy or leafy, and informal. The riddle 'What's brown and sticky? A stick' turns on it: the listener hears the gluey meaning, and the answer switches to this one. Because that clash is almost unavoidable, stick-like or spindly is clearer outside a joke.
14
adjective
Of a death or fate, unpleasant and grisly, often violent or undignified.
The novel's worst character meets a suitably sticky end in the final chapter.
Pirates who crossed the captain usually came to a sticky finish.
Similarnasty, grisly, gruesome, unpleasant, grim
15
nounslangcountable or uncountable
Marijuana, especially potent, resin-covered buds that feel sticky to the touch.
She rolled the sticky into a fat joint and lit it.
The dealer claimed his sticky came from a private grow.
Similarbud, weed, dank, pot, ganja
Note
Street slang for strong marijuana, shortened from sticky-icky and named for the resin that makes good buds tacky. As a mass noun it takes no article: smoking sticky, some nice sticky. Rick Ross uses it in 'Made Men' (2011). It belongs to drug talk and rap lyrics, and in other company it will either confuse or signal exactly that world.
16
nouncolloquialAustraliacountable or uncountable
A sweet dessert wine, typically served in small glasses at the end of a meal.
They finished the evening with a rich sticky and a plate of cheese.
A good sticky pairs beautifully with an almond tart.
Note
Australian everyday speech for dessert wine: you might finish dinner with a sticky. It is colloquial, a word for the table and the wine shop rather than the formal tasting note. It works both as a count noun (a sticky, two stickies) and as a mass noun for the style. Outside Australia the plain phrase dessert wine is safer.
17
nouncountable or uncountable
A small adhesive particle, such as a fragment of glue or tape, found as a contaminant in wastepaper.
Each sticky must be filtered out before the pulp becomes new paper.
A stray sticky jammed the machine and halted the line.
Note
Paper recyclers use it, as both a count and a mass noun, for the glue and tape fragments that ride in with wastepaper. These tacky particles can survive pulping, foul machinery and blemish the finished sheet, which is why mills filter for them. In this trade it is a technical word, unrelated to the office note despite the shared plural, stickies.
18
nounobsoleteuncountable
Wax.
The cobbler drew his thread through a lump of sticky before stitching the sole.
She warmed the sticky between her fingers to soften it for the seal.
Note
Obsolete slang for wax, used without an article or plural: a lump of sticky, never a sticky. It is now met only in older writing. A modern reader who meets it should simply read 'wax,' and a modern writer should leave it alone except for deliberate period color.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of sticky apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

Formed from "stick" combined with the suffix "-y".