Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to persist, to tolerate a situation (esp. an unpleasant one).

1836		F.R. Stockton Late Mrs Null 66: But I reckon she’ll find that I can stick it out just as long as she can.
1850		‘Ned Buntline’ G’hals of N.Y. 92: But they can’t allers stick it out: there’s such a thing as a breaking heart givin’ way at last.
1889		‘Mark Twain’ Connecticut Yankee 334: The properties required me to stick it out.
1902		‘Billy Burgundy’ Toothsome Tales Told in Sl. 125: He had to stick it out.
1911		G. Stratton-Porter Harvester 196: She’s got to stick it out until her aunt grows better.
1917		‘Ian Hay’ Carrying On 306: ‘The other fellows out there have got to go on sticking it out [...].’ ‘And by God [...] what stickers they are.’.
1920		E. Pound letter 19 June in Paige (1971) 153: Also justified in sticking it out in Trieste, at least for the present.
1929		W.R. Burnett Little Caesar (1932) 199: They had been questioning Joe for over two hours [...] But Joe stuck it out.
1937		J. Curtis There Ain’t No Justice 226: Me and you’s both in trouble together so I reckon that the best that we can do is to stick it out together.
1949		H. Wilson ‘I Was King of the Safecrackers’ in Hamilton Men of the Und. 140: I stuck it out for almost two months.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 73: Let’s stick it out here till the mornin’.
1961		V.S. Naipaul House For Mr Biswas 143: Mr Biswas prepared to stick it out.
1970		A. Sillitoe Start in Life (1979) 121: So, clapped-out as I was, I was on my own, and had to stick it out.
1981		T. Wilkinson Down and Out 93: I find it hard to stick it out more than a day or two.
1997		(con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 20: Eddie would show them [...] He’d stick it out.
2000		Guardian 10 Feb. 5: Ms Halliwell said she would ‘stick it out’ until September.

see sense 1 above.

1. (Aus.) to work hard.

1941

Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 71: stick it in, to: To work at a fast pace, to put full effort into a task.

2. see stick it into

see break it off in v.

1. to charge extortionately.

1821		W.T. Moncrieff Tom and Jerry I iv: Must stick it into him for a new pair of kickses, by-and-by.
1838		R.S. Surtees Jorrocks Jaunts (1874) 241: Stickey is the landlord, but he does not stick it in so deep as might be expected from the looks of the house.
1853		Dickens et al. Household Words Christmas No. 1/1: How they do stick it into parents—particularly hair-cutting, and medical attendance.

2. (also stick it on) to defraud, to rob, to take advantage of.

1797		‘T.B. Junr.’ Pettyfogger Dramatized I i: Dam’me, they shan’t stick it into me so—I shall be ruined and starved! [Ibid.] 109: Stick it Into Him. To rob, or ruin a person.
1833		Sydney Gaz. 19 Sept. 3/2: Still more improper is the imputation to a speaker of semiments which he never expressed, because the reporter may have been too indolent to take note of what he did express [...] And yet this — which in the slang of the Gallery is called ‘sticking it into a speaker’ — is by no means rarely practised.
1843–44		Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit (1995) 445: In short, my good fellow, we stick it into B, up hill and down dale, and make a devilish comfortable little property out of him.
1857		‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue 20: Sticking it on, deceiving or defrauding.

3. (Aus.) to beg for a loan.

1905

Sporting Times 11 Feb. 4/1: I’ll have to stick it into the governor for a pair of guns or something.

4. (also stick it in, stick it off, stick it up) to have sexual intercourse (with).

[1699		‘Song’ in Playford Pills to Purge Melancholy I 64: And all the while he sticks it in, / The Stones cry Clack, Clack, Clack].
1904		Lustful Memoirs of a Young and Passionated Girl 30: She was watching Julia, thinking it must hurt her to have such a big thing stuck into her.
1928		in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) I 409: I’ll whistle up my dinner / As sure as I’m a sinner, / An’ then I’ll stick it in her, / Down on the Pichelo farm.
1953		in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 254: There was an old lady at the age of sixty-three. / She said, ‘Please, sonny, won’t you stick it into me.’.
1964		R. Buehler Annotated Collection of Obscene Humor 49: Down home from where I come from we just walk up to a girl and stick it in ’em, and then we say ‘hello’.
1971		F. Hilaire Thanatos 119: If you don’t stick it off in that bastard, and keep twisting till he begs, you’re a damn fool.
1988		R. Doyle Commitments 78: He’s sticking it into your woman from the shop, Colette, did yis know tha’?
1990		P. Hotz Muzukuru 103: You’re kak, you’re just a couple cows – I’d rather stick it up a dog any day.
1999		‘Master Pimp’ Pimp’s Rap 52: We must have been freaking for at least 25 minutes. I hadn’t stuck it in yet.
2002		A. Duff Jake’s Long Shadow 69: He just stuck it in ’er, bangbangbang, another one up the spout, up the duff.

5. see stick it to

see stick it into

1. to increase prices.

1833		Morning Courier and N.-Y. Enquirer 20 May 2/2: As many of our neighbors are boasting they intend ‘sticking it on this season,’ we therefore . . . inform country merchants and dealers that we do not intend to ‘stick it on,’ but that we intend to sell as heretofore all we can for cash and good credit.
1868		Sportsman 30 Apr. 2/1: Notes on News [...] To show the tendency railways to ‘stick it on,’ in the matter of carrying rates, it may be here stated [etc].
1874		‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter I 11: ‘Stick it on, old fellow; pile on the agony [...] only wish I’d some more spare cash’.

2. to accuse unfairly, to ‘frame up’.

1958

F. Norman Bang To Rights 152: A few years ago when I was a kid I had it stuck on me by the law.

3. to hit, to beat.

1958		F. Norman Bang To Rights 61: We [...] were going to have it away, at all cost even if we had to stick it on the screws.
1973		(con. mid-1960s) J. Patrick Glasgow Gang Observed 76: Pat jist went mad and stuck it oan him.
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 132: Two of the lads he was talking about were big Island boys [...] and I couldn’t see anyone sticking it on them.

4. (N.Z.) to have sexual intercourse.

1982

G. Newbold Big Huey 130: I began thinking about Karen and what she’d done [...] Finally I decided to stick it on her again.

5. see stick it into

1. to defraud; to take advantage of.

1972		O. Hawkins Ghetto Sketches 116: He oughta stick it to all the old wrinkled up white bitches he can reach, they can afford it.
1985		N. George ‘Rappin’ with Russell’ in Buppies, B-Boys, Baps and Bohos (1994) 49: He would certainly hurt their project and, as blaxploitation films used to advertise, ‘stick it to the man.’.
1999		J. Ridley Everybody Smokes in Hell 147: What are you going to do when you find him, give him a medal for sticking it to whitey?
2007		N. ‘Razor’ Smith Raiders 135: Not only was he earning [...] but was also sticking it to the skag-dealers.

2. (US) to treat harshly; to assault violently.

1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 266: Something was awfully wrong, Bednar sticking it to Solly that hard.
1953		I. Hamilton Till Human Voices Wake Us 177: I thought it was pretty lousy the way they’d stuck it into him.
1969		M. Puzo Godfather 373: You really are one hell of a doctor [...] You don’t bother to use a nice word like sanitarium. You really like to stick it to people, right?
1971		D. Goines Dopefiend (1991) 174: That bastard sure is sticking it to us.
1982		(con. 1970) J.M. Del Vecchio 13th Valley (1983) 320: ‘Aw, they stickin it to us uh-gain,’ [...] ‘We’re getting fucked, L-T.’.
1992		S.L. Hills Tragic Magic 91: But if you take the chance and push it all the way to trial, and you lose, they’ll stick it to you.
1997		Bug (Aus.) 1 Oct. 🌐 At least some federal public servants were thinking straight when they stuck it to Howard by opening up the touted travel rorts affair.
2017		N. Tabor in Oxford American 2 Mar. 🌐 A juror told her they’d all wanted to ‘stick it to’ the Elliotts but had concluded that ‘the evidence just wasn’t there’.

3. (US) to copulate.

1983		R. Price Breaks 233: I knew those guys weren’t sticking it to Kim.
1994		T. Willocks Green River Rising 7: You all like to stick it to her but your meat’s just way too small.
2000		Willowall ‘Amanda Gets Zipped’ 🌐 Eddy was an idol to him. He took almost a whole roll of film of him sticking it to his daughter.

4. to tease, to malign, to attack.

1999		Guardian Guide 9–15 Oct. 9: Four former Hollywood callgirls sticking it to famous men who’ve stuck it to them.
2001		N. Green Shooting Dr. Jack (2002) 152: I was, like, her main focus, like all she could think about was sticking it to me.

5. in fig. use, to consume.

2005

K. Huff A Steady Rain I i: I don’t want you going back to that armpit of a bachelor pad and sticking it to a bottle of Schnapps tonight.

1. to act uncompromisingly towards someone in pursuit of victory.

1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 12: He’s been saying how he’s gonna stick it right up you Henry cause he hates Maoris.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 126: Grungle took on a ten foot crocodile [...] He stuck it up a croc.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 198: stick it up ’em is to fight or to play hard, usually to win.
2006		Age (Melbourne) 6 Jan. 🌐 He’d been rep at Toggernmane Station [...] when he stuck it up them. Then he started on the 1956 strike.

2. see stick it into

3. see stick up v.²

1. (also shove it up someone’s ass, ...rear, tuck it up someone’s ass) to humiliate, to treat badly.

1960		H. Selby Jr ‘Tralala’ in Provincetown Rev. 3 81: She sprawled to her feet cursing every sonofabitch and his brother and told them they could stick their fuckin beer up their ass.
1967		(con. 1950s) McAleer & Dickson Unit Pride (1981) 282: Miller’s ol’ lady will be out on the street the night she gets this letter, letting everyone who comes along bang her, just to tuck it up Calvin’s ass for spite.
1974		Dly Press (Newport News, VA) 12 July 7/4: ‘I’m going to shove it up someone’s rear’.
1978		H. Selby Jr Requiem for a Dream (1987) 39: Cockteasin me [...] and then shove it up my ass wit that fuckin bullshit.
1987		R. Campbell Alice in La-La Land (1999) 50: He gives away two hundred bucks just for the pleasure of sticking it up my ass for five seconds.
1989		R.G. Barrett Boys from Binjiwunyawunya 12: I’m being shafted, boys. Blackmailed. Getting it well and truly shoved up my arse.
1997		G.V. Higgins Change of Gravity [ebook] ‘[H]e doesn’t want havin’ you remember how he stuck it up your ass when some shit bird-civilian complained’.
2011		D.R. Pollock Devil All the Time 205: Oh, yes, [his mother] had fucked him royally, shoved it right up his ass, the old shrew.

2. to betray, to let down.

2000

C. Cook Robbers (2001) 191: First time I ain’t watching my back you stick it up my ass.