Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) mawkish, sentimental.

1836		M. Scott Cruise of the Midge 191: Nonsense – to be sure it is all nonsense – regular moonshine [...] what a melancholy report we shall have to make to Sir Oliver! but give us some grog, Lanyard, you sticky old villain.
1902		Ade Girl Proposition 73: He thought she was so Sticky on him that everything he did looked good to her.

2. of weather, muggy.

1895

in Funk’s Standard Dict.

3. of a person, awkward, uncooperative, punctilious, prone to cause trouble.

1882		L. Troubridge Life amongst Troubridges (1966) 162: Rather a sticky audience who evidently thought it vulgar to laugh, and only sniggered into their pocket handkerchiefs.
1925		T.E. Lawrence letter 3 Nov. in Garnett Letters (1938) 486: I’ve got too many subscribers, so am very sticky over these last copies.
1935		Wodehouse Luck of the Bodkins 34: He didn’t actually call me a waster [...] but his manner was sticky.
1940		Graves & Hodge Long Week-End 135: Even the stickiest British families seemed ready to abandon their mistrust of the cinema, if the vulgar American scene could only be replaced by a wholesome British one.
1951		P. Hamilton West Pier (1986) 198: We haven’t got the car tonight. Old Gosling’s a bit sticky about it.
1959		H.E. Bates A Breath of French Air (1985) 155: I thought you were going to be a bit sticky about me and Ma. I don’t know – bit awkward. Were you?
1960		J. Havoc Early Havoc 229: Your sister [...] knows how sticky you are about where she works.
1978		A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 208: People are sticky out here about privacy, you know.
1985		B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 27: Young Craig, like all brilliant kids, went through a sticky patch.
1998		D. Hecht Skull Session 300: The sticky one was Rizal.

4. of circumstances, awkward, presenting great difficulty, disagreeable because of hardship or danger.

1918		Kia Ora Coo-ee 15 May 11/1: Captain Oliver Hogue (‘Trooper Bluegum’), [...] was born in April [....] 1880, so he is quite old enough to realise that war is a sticky business.
1922		E. Raymond Tell England (1965) 282: It’ll be the stickiest thing we’ve had for some time.
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 7: No wonder he finds the going sticky.
1936		N. Marsh Death in Ecstasy 133: It’s a sticky business, this.
1948		C. Day Lewis Otterbury Incident 110: Suppose the flatfeet got to hear of it? Sticky look-out for young Ted, eh?
1959		W. Hall Long and the Short and the Tall Act II: It’s a sticky number as it is. We’ve got to go right through the lot of them.
1960		B. Kops Dream of Peter Mann Act II: My knight is in a sticky position.
1975		D. Nobbs Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976) 99: With luck they‘d miss most of their pre-dinner drinks. That was always the stickiest time.
1984		C. White Life and Times of Little Richard 163: The promoters had told me that ticket sales were a bit sticky.
1999		Indep. Rev. 4 Sept. 20: But things turned a bit sticky.
2000		T. Udo Vatican Bloodbath 34: Rumoured to have God on his side and to be able to count on divine intervention when he got into sticky situations.
2017		Star (Jamaica) 13 Nov. 🌐 Ninja Man co-accused. Comment [...] As dem seh inna di rum bar ‘It look sticky’.
2018-20		T. Thorne (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Sticky - dangerous.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 276: Unless you want it to get real stick, you need to let off with the keys.

5. of a social function, slow to start, stiff, uncomfortable.

1930		V. Sackville-West Edwardians 17: ‘What was Miriam’s party like, Lucy? Sticky, as usual?’ ‘No,’ said Lucy, ‘quite a good party for once’.
1952		B. Pym Excellent Women (1994) 265: I remembered many sticky church functions which might have been improved if somebody had happened to open a bottle of wine.
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 113: It looked like the beginning of a sticky couple of days.

6. unpleasant.

1934		D.L. Sayers Nine Tailors (1984) 265: If ever a fellow deserved a sticky death, it’s this Deacon brute.
1936		Hastings Obs. 18 Jan. 6/2: What about all the rabbits [...] that got a reprieve from a sticky end by the death of this one fox.
1997		D. Farson Never a Normal Man 315: The young man was bound to come to a sticky end because he lived too fast.

7. pertaining to (commercial) sex.

2000

J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 23: A kinda armchair arrangement that’s been made outta boxes of sticky books and sex aids.