Green’s Dictionary of Slang

stick n.

1. pertaining to the shape.

(a) the penis; thus (US gay) bent stick, dead stick, an impotent penis.

[UK]M. Stevenson Wits Paraphras’d 42: With laughing when I read your Prose, / I was ready to bepiss my hose: / And nothing else, except your stick / Cou’d so much tickle me to th’ Quick.
[UK] ‘The Wanton Trick’ in Playford Pills to Purge Melancholy II 93: The string of his Viol she put to the Trial, / Till she had the full length of the Stick.
[UK] in D‘Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy IV 94: His Viol-string burst, her Tuten she Curst, / However she play’d with the Stick.
‘The Original black Joke. Sent from Dublin’ 🎵 The cuning [sic] sly Jade show’d him a trick / & sent him away with fire in his stick.
[UK]Spy on Mother Midnight I 24: I think you was just now saying, that six or seven Inches would do as well as a Stick that would reach ’twixt this and Lambeth; for I take it, that less than ten can never carry a Man over any thing of a grown River.
[UK]Aristaenetus Love Epistles (translation) in Atkins Sex in Literature IV 86: Nor shall you that sly gypsy nick, / With any weapon but your — stick.
[UK]Bridges Burlesque Homer (4th edn) I 223: Nor shall you that sly gypsy nick, / With any weapon but your — stick.
[UK] ‘The Parish Priest’ in Regular Thing, And No Mistake 74: For to attempt to correct a modest young woman, / With a diminutive kind of a stick. / Instead of a fine large, etc.
[UK] ‘The Drummer’s Stick’ in Frisky Vocalist 4: He came upon them in the nick, / And found her having the drummer’s stick.
[UK] ‘The Copper Stick’ in Nancy Dawson’s Cabinet of Songs 4: May every woman – when in the nick, / Always find such a funny copper stick.
[Aus]Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 25 Feb. 2/3: All such sticks as these ought to have scratched on their stems or (when made useful) on their ferrules, the fable of old Ae-sop.
[US]Lucille Brogan ‘Shave ’Em Dry’ in Oliver Screening the Blues (1968) 231: Now your nuts hang down like a damn bell-clapper, / And your stick stands up like a steeple.
Crime Smashers Oct. 30: [comic] Oh, yes! I love your bearded clam! Ooooh...Just be careful...I’m not used to sticks your size!
[UK]W. Talsman Gaudy Image (1966) 206: ‘You need a spin with a new stick,’ Minnie [i.e. a homosexual man] said, striking a novel pose.
[US]Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 4: bent stick (n.): The penis of a man too elderly to achieve an erection.
[US]B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 51: penis incapable of erection [...] bent stick; dead stick.
[US]C. Bukowski Erections, Ejaculations etc. 323: My balls just beginning to unlimber [...] and my stick still thinking of the colored maid.
[Oth]D. Marechera House of Hunger (2013) ‘ [ebook] I licked the rest of the drops from his stick’.
[US]Sheila E ‘Holly Rock’ 🎵 If you got a big enough stick / Come on over to the Holly Rock / Don’t you wanna learn a new trick?
[Aus]Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Stick. 2. A penis.
[US]P. Beatty White Boy Shuffle 78: You should hear the guys at school. ‘Suck my dick, slob on the knob, lick my stick’.
[Aus] www.thepantsman.com 🌐 If these women truly are ‘lining up’ for you antipodean Adonis’s, then a filthy hostel hovel is not going to stop a dripper getting a bit of quality stick.

(b) (UK Und.) a pistol.

[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Sticks, Pops or Pistols. Stow your Sticks, hide your Pistols.
[UK]Metropolitan Mag. XIV Sept. 334: Out, howsoever, jumped one of the swells, who was a swodgill, on the other side of the rattler, and coolly taking aim with his stick, brought down poor Bob.
K. Koke ‘Fire in the Booth’ 🎵 These pricks didn't bring sticks they brought planks out / How you gonna bring wood to a gun fight.
410 ‘Four Door Coming’ 🎵 2 hands on a stick, man I’m tryna catch me a body / Niggas know juice garn spill, if you see me riding with Dotty.
[UK]Digga D. ‘Stuck in the Mud’ 🎵 I’ll stuff the clip, rise the stick and touch his wig (Baow).

(c) (UK Und.) a breast-pin.

[US]Matsell Vocabulum.
[Aus]Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 81: Sticks, [...] scarf pins.

(d) (US) a baseball bat.

[US]N.Y. Herald 4 Aug. 6/5: The Empire seemed out of practice with ‘the stick’ [DA].
[US]N.Y. Globe 26 Mar. in Fleming Unforgettable Season (1981) 33: He outclasses them with the stick.
[US]Van Loan ‘Little Sunset’ in Ten-Thousand-Dollar Arm 113: He rose and picked out his favorite stick.
[US]S, Paige Pitchin’ Man 57: I don’t mind announcin’ I can hit, and I told Mr. Boudreau I’m always ready with the stick.
[US]Da Bomb 🌐 27: Stick: Baseball bat. Johnny, grab a stick; you’re up.

(e) (UK Und.) a crowbar, a jemmy.

[UK] ‘Autobiog. of a Thief’ in Macmillan’s Mag. (London) XL 503: We shall want some twirls and the stick (crowbar), and bring a neddie (life preserver) with you.
[US](con. 1910s) D. Mackenzie Hell’s Kitchen 37: We had to use brute force and get to work with our ‘sticks’ (jemmies).
[Ire]Eve. Herald (Dublin) 9 Dec. 4/6: Other [underworld] terms include : — ‘Flatty’ (policeman), ‘peach’ (to give away), ‘Peter’ (safe), ‘monkey’ (padlock), ‘stick’ (jemmy), ‘van dragger’ (motor thief), ‘snow’ (cocaine), ‘madam’ (misleading conversation) ‘stir’ (prison).
[UK]V. Davis Gentlemen of the Broad Arrows 196: It pays me passage back here and the price of a ‘stick’ (jemmy).
[UK]V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 251: The bishop, cane, iron, or stick. All mean a jemmy.
[Ire]J. Phelan Tramp at Anchor 110: Men who were not burglars nevertheless habitually used words like stick [...] when they meant jemmy.
[UK] ‘Screwsman’s Lament’ in Encounter n.d. in Norman Norman’s London (1969) 67: We went round to my gaff, to get my turtle doves, / My stick, tools and glimmer, which every screwsman loves.
[UK](con. 1900–30) A. Harding in Samuel East End Und. 281: Have you got your cane? Have you got your stick?
[UK](con. 1950s–60s) in G. Tremlett Little Legs 197: stick jemmy.

(f) a police truncheon.

[US]A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Stick, a policeman’s club.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
in J. Olsen Black is Best 108: ‘I’m the guy that always want to bust the cop in the mouth! [...] —And he’s the one with the two guns and the stick, and I want to bust him!’.
[US]J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 60: My partner and me and half the nightwatch are gonna work out on your gourd with our sticks.
[UK](con. 1900–30) A. Harding in Samuel East End Und. 284: Stick – Policeman’s truncheon.
[US]M. McAlary Buddy Boys 176: I don’t have a night stick on me. I never liked carrying a stick.

(g) (US Und./prison) a blackjack.

[US]C.G. Givens ‘Chatter of Guns’ in Sat. Eve. Post 13 Apr.; list extracted in AS VI:2 (1930) 134: stick, n. Blackjack.
[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 210/1: Stick, n. [...] 6. (P) A bludgeon.

(h) a clarinet.

[US]N.E. Williams His Hi De Highness of Ho De Ho 35: The clarinet player, when he takes a soaring break, is ‘getting off on a stick’.
[US]Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 248: If I could play that stick like you do, I’d be out there runnin’ [...] in all the fine places.

(i) (US gambling) the croupier’s rake; thus used to mean the croupier and the croupier’s booth; thus on the stick, working as a croupier .

[US]C. Himes ‘Every Opportunity’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 247: A little hunchbacked guy called ‘Speedy’ had his old job on the stick in the blackjack game.
[US]D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 28 Oct. 16: The lady of the house works the stick and the rest of the chicks [...] gamble all day long.
[US]D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 106: Then Slim hollers, ‘Winner, winner, winner,’ as stick guys love to do.
[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 210/1: Stick, n. [...] 3. A cashier’s cage; a cash register; a croupier’s booth.

(j) (US) a billiard or pool cue; thus stick hall n., a poolroom.

[US]R. Finestone in Cressey & Ward Delinquency, Crime, and Social Process (1969) 790: Thus he used [...] ‘stick hall’ for pool hall.
[US]P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 304: Go to the stick hall.
[Can](con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 87: Bert, a better-than-average shooter, took a stick in the game.

(k) (Aus./US) a surfboard.

[Aus]Tharunka (Sydney) 3 Apr. n.p.: Right all you TEAS grabbing, flower bagged, scoob scoffing bastards; down ya bongs, put on ya thongs an’ ‘wax up’ ya sticks.
[US]Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 7: stick – surfboard: ‘Let’s go to the beach so that I can try out my new stick.’.
[US]D. Jenkins Money-Whipped Steer-Job 3: ‘Or he has a surfboard under his arm and the only thing he can say is ‘Grab your stick, dude, there’s a swell at Pipeline’.
[US]D. Winslow ‘Sunset’ in Broken 179: ‘I seem to have misplaced my stick’.

(l) (US black) a knife.

[US]T.R. Houser Central Sl. 49: stick [...] ‘Nigger picked-up the stick and cut me.’.
[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 178/1: stick n. l a knife or razor.
[US]G. Pelecanos Hell to Pay 146: Wilson produced a switchblade knife from his coat pocket [...] ‘Picked this up over in Italy [...] They make the prettiest sticks.’.

(m) (US) an act of sexual intercourse.

[US]J. Ridley Everybody Smokes in Hell 143: I can have any skeez I want. Why da fuck should you git a double stick from me?

(n) (US) a car with a manual gear lever.

[US]F. Kellerman Stalker (2001) 68: The car has manual transmission. And even if you can drive a stick, you gotta know how the gears go. And even if you know the gears, you gotta know how to drive a very temperamental car.

2. in senses of solidity, of being ‘wooden’ or ‘cross–grained’.

(a) of a person, an insult, esp. awkward and/or dull.

[UK]M. Atkins Cataplus 65: Here Phlegyas that was a bad stick / Of heresy, and a fanatick.
[Ire]M. Lonsdale Spanish Rivals I ii: ’Icod, I think he has jumbled it a bit—He’s a queer stick to make a thivel on, as they say in our country.
[UK]‘Country Life’ in Hilaria 67: In the Country you’re nail’d like a pale in your park, / To some stick of a neighbour.
[UK]M. Edgeworth Belinda (1994) 267: And you out of patience [...] will go and marry – I know you will – some stick of a rival purely to provoke him.
[UK]Austen Mansfield Park (1926) 122: I was surprised to see Sir Henry such a stick; luckily the strength of the piece did not depend upon him.
[UK]‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 165: Stick (a) a fellow clumsy at any profession ? as ‘a stick of an artist,’ should not be an exhibitioner.
[UK]Paul Pry 30 Sept. 183/3: [H]e is [...] a poor stick without any of Ben’s cunning.
[US]T. Haliburton Clockmaker II 10: He was a poor stick to make a preacher on, for minister couldn’t beat nothin’ into him, a’most, he was so cussed stupid.
[UK] ‘The Call-Boy’ in Nobby Songster 31: For he is no stick, he is up to each trick.
[US]N.Y. Daily Trib. 4 Sept. 4/2: Look, for instance, at [...] ‘Bill’ Drake, about the poorest stick for a legislator ever elected.
[UK]E. Eden Semi-Attached Couple (1979) 259: I am very much disappointed in William Montague; he is a regular stick on the stage.
[UK] ‘’Arry on the River’ in Punch 9 Aug. 57/1: They didn’t get arf a look in ’long o’ me; they’d no form, them two sticks.
[NZ]N.Z. Observer (Auckland) 18 Sept. 6/1: Owen Westford, whom I had previously thought a most ponderous ‘stick,’ played ‘Barney’ [...] uncommonly well.
[US]Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 2 Sept. 3/1: Jefferson, with a company of ‘sticks,’ [...] principally of his quadruple family and a sprinkling of low-salaried poor devils .
[UK]W.S. Gilbert ‘The Martinet’ Fifty ‘Bab’ Ballads 214: His First Lieutenant, peter, was / As useless as could be, / A helpless stick, and always sick / When there was any sea.
[UK]Mirror of Life 21 July 3/4: ‘Should you say that a girl who wanted to become a model could do any good by going on the stage?’ [...] 'Worst thing she could do! The stage is full of shocking sticks’.
[US]W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 15: stick, and poor stick A stupid, uninteresting person.
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 21 Aug. 4/7: I own I’m not a solemn stick, / I’m fond of jokes and wheezes.
[US]C. Chesnutt Colonel’s Dream 101: He’s only a poor stick, the last of good stock run to seed.
[US]H. Truman letter 21 Jan. in Ferrell Dear Bess (1983) 111: She finally decided that I am a very poor stick to talk to.
[US](con. 1900s) S. Lewis Elmer Gantry 154: Lulu considered him a stick.
[US]J.H. O’Hara Appointment in Samarra (1935) 153: It became very very easy to think of him as a stick, a stuffed shirt.
[UK]G. Fairlie Capt. Bulldog Drummond 73: All his life in America, he had thought of an Englishman as a dull stick.
[UK]‘Josephine Tey’ To Love and Be Wise 164: ‘[Y]ou don’t really think that that poor stick Walter Whitmore ever got up enough red blood to tap the Searle boy on the head, do you?’ .
F. O’Connor Set of variations 153: The headmaster of the Technical School, an ugly, slow-moving, cynical man whom Celia considered a dull stick.
[Ire]H. Leonard A Life (1981) Act I: Ah, don’t be such a dry old stick.
[US]New York mag. 23 Mar. 89/1: Angela’s Ralph is, at best, a dull stick.
C. Ennico Legal Job Interview 168: What he wants to hear is that you are just as much of a dull stick as he is.
[Scot]A. Parks Bloody January 262: Picture should be enough to make the Wee Free stick choke on his morning tea.

(b) a sermon [? the ‘wooden’ delivery of some sermons or the wooden pulpit].

[US]T. Boucher Letter J. James 7 Aug. (MS.) n.p.: What matter of a new stick, vamp them one for next Sunday [OED].

(c) an affectionate term for a person, e.g. not a bad old stick.

[SA]A.H. Roskell Six Years of a Tramp’s Life 60: Such a funny old stick I never did see. I was to stop a week with him and share his hospitality.
[Aus]C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 81: ‘[A] rum stick,’ an odd or curious person.
[UK]C. Messent Doctor in Corduroy 275: ‘Ah, well,’ said Kate, ‘you are a good old stick, and I am proud of you.’.
[UK]‘Bartimeus’ ‘Narrative of Commander W.D. Hornby’ in Awfully Big Adventure 93: Selby was our Navigator, a dry, thoughtful old stick.
[UK]J.B. Priestley Good Companions 98: He’s a pleasant old stick.
[UK]G. Ingram Cockney Cavalcade 179: He ain’t a bad stick really.
[Aus]D. Niland Shiralee 41: Good old stick, though. Wouldn’t do you a bad turn.
[NZ]N. Hilliard Maori Girl 179: He smiled. ‘Great stick, Harry. One of the best.’.
[Aus]P. White Solid Mandala (1976) 86: All told, Ma Musto wasn’t such a bad stick.
[NZ]D. Davin Breathing Spaces 89: She’s a funny old stick.
[UK]T. Blacker Fixx 25: Williams was not a bad old stick in his own eccentric way.
[UK]J. Osborne Déjàvu Act II: He was a good old stick. Well, he was very nice to me.

(d) (N.Z./US Black) a friend; esp. as a term of address.

[NZ]McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 199: stick Mate, eg, ‘G’day, stick, ow’s it goin’ then?’ Maybe a contraction of ‘stickman’.
[US]‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] That’ cool, stic, but I’d rather speak to KG.

3. (UK Und., also candy stick) a pistol; usu. pl.; thus flash one’s sticks v., to draw but not (yet) fire one’s pistols [abbr. shooting stick].

[UK]G. Parker View of Society II 174: A highwayman will ding his Upper-Benjamin, his Jazey, his Sticks, his Flogger, his Diggers, his Beater-Cases, &c. and having all these on him when he committed the robbery, is totally transformed by dinging.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn).
[UK]H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
[UK]G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
[Aus]Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
[UK]Flash Dict.
[UK](con. 1737–9) W.H. Ainsworth Rookwood (1857) 168: Look at his rigging – see how he flashes his sticks! — those are the tools to rake a three-decker.
[UK]Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
[US]Matsell Vocabulum.
[UK]Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
[UK]Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 53/2: Brockey, by means of the ‘sugar’ he raised on the sale of the ‘sticks,’ kept himself from starving.
[UK]Hotten Sl. Dict.
[US]‘Goat’ Laven Rough Stuff 112: Paddy pulled out his ‘stick’ (gun) and began blasting away.
[UK]V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 27: He fits out the ‘boys’ with anything they want — from a ‘stick’ to a lorry.
[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 210/1: Stick, n. A pistol; revolver.
[US]L. Sanders Anderson Tapes 97: [S]mart boy [...] Never carried a stick.
[US]T.R. Houser Central Sl. 14: candy stick A handgun. A roscoe.

4. in context of alcohol.

(a) a shot of spirits, usu. rum or brandy added to coffee or tea; usu. in phr. with a stick in it [? Ger. schtuck, a piece].

[UK]R. Anderson Cumberland Ballads (1808) 175: A quart o’ het yell, and a stick in’t .
[Ire]Tralee Chron. 15 Jan. 2/6: [T]hat very fine sirloin of Sweeny’s best beef," [...] I’ll engage, too, it wasn’t with aqua pura you washed all down, but a dhrop something with a ‘stick’ in it.
[US]Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 12 Oct. n.p.: No doubt [...] sarsparilla does not agree with you, but perhaps a ‘stick’ fell into it, eh?
[US]St Louis Globe-Democrat 19 Jan. n.p.: They nominate ‘bottled electricity,’ ‘lemonade with a stick in it,’ ‘jig-water,’ ‘budge,’ ‘bilge-water,’ ‘bug-juice,’ ‘rat-poison,’ ‘fusel-oil,’ ‘red-eye,’ ‘liquid ointment,’ ‘cut nails,’ ‘hard head,’ ‘benzine,’ ‘nitro-glycerine,’ ‘oil,’ ‘tea,’ ‘eye-water,’ ‘chain- lightning.’ [...] they all want the same article, alcohol, more or less diluted.
[Aus]R.M. Praed Romance of a Station I 136: Come [...] and have a parting drink for good luck – coffee, if you like, with a ‘stick’ in it.
[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 21 Jan. 4/2: It is admitted that he had taken advantage of that day’s festive opportunity to imbibe more or less liquids impregnated with what ‘Widdy O’Brien’ termed ‘a stick’.
[Aus]Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 26 Oct. 3/3: The old tarts composing the W.C.T.U. duly met in solemn conclave [...] and between sips of tea (minus a ‘stick’) talked a lot of scandal.
[US]T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 78: How do you like the lemonade yer honor? Fine O Malley — Get me another. I must cure this cold today — Don’t forget the stick in it.
[Aus]Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 270: Get her a glass of milk with a stick in it.

(b) (US) one who deals in illicit liquor.

[US]A. Hardin ‘Volstead Eng.’ in AS VII:2 86: Terms for those who deal in liquor: [...] Stick.

(c) (US black) a drunkard.

[US] ‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.

5. a piece of furniture; usu. in pl.

[UK]Sporting Mag. Dec. XXIII 155/1: The house, and all the sticks in it, to Mary my wife.
[UK] ‘Parody on Mr. Clarke’ in Holloway & Black (1979) II 231: So she sold off her sticks, / And exposed all his tricks.
[UK]‘Peter Corcoran’ ‘King Tims the First’ in Fancy 20: We’re come to settle – (see these sticks).
[UK]Cumberland Pacquet 12 Dec. 4/5: When we flit, the landlord stops / Ma sticks till a’ the rent be paid.
[UK]R. Ryan Everybody’s Husband I i: What with the sticks young missus will get when the old lady pops off, they’ll be tolerably snug.
[UK]Comic Almanack Feb. 165: Sel the stiks and send me the munny.
[Aus]Sydney Herald 26 Oct. 2/4: Mr Rennie gave an immense number of examples of similar slang [...] music, for ‘fun;’ a good hand, for ‘dextrous’ or ‘expert;’ peckish, for ‘hungry;’ sticks, for ‘household furniture;’ seedy, for ‘poor;’ spliced, for ‘married’.
[UK]Sam Sly 19 May 2/1: The C—s—ll family [...] not to threaten to ‘sell all their sticks’ to pay a lawyer to prosecute a certain young man.
[Aus]Bell’s Life in Sydney 5 May 3/2: Mr Roberts—Did you not take a quantity of furniture [...] Mrs Keck—Yes—he gave me a few sticks.
[UK]G.A. Sala Gaslight and Daylight 139: Bless you, he thrives on ruin [...] child scalded to death – execution on his poor ‘sticks’ at this very moment.
[UK]Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 90/1: Thau knows thysel all t’ sticks in the house ain’t wirth thirty quid.
[UK]J. Greenwood Dick Temple III 124: Every stick [...] Every chair and table; every bedstead and bed.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 18 July 18/4: The Melbourne Herald recently published quite an affecting narrative of how a young man named Bunt betrayed the trust of a furniture dealer. […] It is only since they forwarded Mr. Bunt’s esteemed order, on credit, and that misguided youth carted away the ‘sticks’ in the dead of night, that ‘the firm’ have lost some of the simple faith in human nature that characterises the trade.
[Aus]Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 81: Sticks, furniture, as ‘pick up your sticks and cut’.
[UK]Boy’s Own Paper 15 Apr. 451: When ye gets the sticks in, and the curtains hup.
H. Lawson ‘Mateship’ in Lone Hand (Sydney) Sept. 512/2: Sal [...] works hard to keep the kid, the room, and the ‘sticks’.
[Aus]E. Dyson Spats’ Fact’ry (1922) 38: He’s puttin’ pennies in the little tin bank [...] fer the bits iv sticks t’ furnish th’ ’appy ’ome.
[Ire]S. O’Casey Juno and the Paycock Act III: We’ll be left without a stick.
[UK]E. Raymond Marsh 432: He had brought his few ‘sticks’ on a hired barrow.
[US]H.A. Smith Life in a Putty Knife Factory (1948) 128: Every stick of furniture in the place goes out!
[Can]R. Service ‘No Sunday Chicken’ Carols of an Old Codger 134: Some monster of an auctioneer / Might sell his sticks and clothes.
[UK]P. Theroux London Embassy 103: He’s moved everything, every stick.
[UK]‘Derek Raymond’ He Died with His Eyes Open 149: There were some sticks of G Plan, a cushion on the floor in patchwork leather left behind by the previous tenant.
[UK]Indep. Rev. 10 Aug. 9: When we set up castle, we didn’t have a stick between us.
[US]W. Shaw Westsiders 33: He found a new apartment, but they didn’t have a stick of furniture.

6. pertaining to shape, in senses of smoking/drugs.

(a) a cigarette.

[US]E.W. Townsend Chimmie Fadden 182: Dey would come and stand round wid dere sticks in dere mouts.
[US]‘Hugh McHugh’ Skidoo! 86: When the other young men began to smoke their cigarettes Claude grew uneasy. After they had consumed about seven sticks apiece Claude buried his face in a foaming stein of beer.
[US]O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 26 Jan. [synd. col.] It was the Ritz that first permitted milady to use nicotine sticks within its sacred portals.
[Aus]W.H. Downing Digger Dialects 17: consumption stick — Cigarette.
[US]J.W. Arnold ‘The Lang. of Delinquent Boys’ in AS XXII:2 Apr. 122: Stick. A cigaret.
[US]T. Williams Camino Real Block Sixteen: The smoking lamp is lit. Have a stick on me!
[US]P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 58: Then the stick was gone, burnt to a little bit of a roach.
[US]Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 350: No more sliding the Korean twenty-five cents through the Plexiglas and getting back a single stick.
[US]G. Pelecanos Shame the Devil 45: I can still picture Charles, taking a pull on that stick, trying to blow rings.

(b) a quantity of opium.

[UK]‘Sax Rohmer’ Dope 92: I have only three sticks of Yezd left of all my stock.

(c) an opium pipe.

[US]D. Maurer ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 1 in AS XI:2 126/2: stick. 1. A home-made opium pipe constructed from a wide-mouthed bottle and rubber tubing. 2. Variant of dream-stick, hop stick, joy stick.
[US]B. Dai Opium Addiction in Chicago.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
[US]J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.

(d) a marijuana cigarette.

[US]Williams & Bechet ‘Viper Mad’ 🎵 Just viper mad / Must have my fun [. . .] / Wrap your chops ‘round this stick of tea / Blow this gage and get high with me.
[US]W. Burroughs letter 19 Nov. in Harris (1993) 23: I will send along some weed. Please give some (about 10 sticks) to Brandenburg.
[US]Mad mag. Sept.–Oct. 11: Bobby sells reefers to the other children [...] Sometimes we buy a stick from Bobby.
[US]H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 42: Goldie gave her a stick and Georgette sucked the smoke refusing, absolutely refusing to cough.
[US]A. Brooke Last Toke 200: He took the stick next, drew deep, held the smoke and started to pass it to Redwood.
[US]D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 30: Wanda [...] sat at the kitchen table to twist a few sticks.
[UK]Fallacy ‘Scrunch’ 🎵 You’re sling the rocks or run sticks.
[US]P. Beatty Sellout (2016) 126: Puffing and passing, trying to keep your stick from getting dinged up.

(e) (US drugs) a very thinly rolled marijuana cigarette.

Hal Ellson Duke 3: I was saving the bombers. I smoked all the sticks [...] They’re skinny like lollypop sticks.

(f) (US drugs) an injection of heroin.

[US]L. Pettiway Workin’ It 168: One stick and you’re hooked.

(g) a magazine of ammunition.

T. Pluck ‘Hula Hula Boys’ in What Pluckery Is This? (28 Jan 2024) 🌐 He took an oilskin from a crevice and unwrapped his Thompson, cleared the breech, and loaded a stick.

(h) see sherm stick under sherm n.

7. a decoy or accomplice.

(a) (UK Und.) a man who, working with the woman, violently robs a prostitute’s client.

[Aus]Age (Melbourne) 17 May 7/7: [from Manchester Examiner, UK] ‘You know I’m not a burglar,’ one of them said to Inspector Buckley, ‘you know my trade — I’m a stick,' the slang title of those who aid women to rob men.

(b) (US Und.) a criminal’s accomplice who poses as an ordinary person to distract or influence the victims of an intended crime or swindle.

[US]A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Stick, a grafter’s or confidence man’s assistant.
[US] ‘I’ll Gyp You Every Time’ in C. Hamilton Men of the Und. 181: Several of the sticks standing around managed [...] to remove a few of the red tickets.
[US]C. Hamilton Men of the Und. 176: The anonymous author [...] joined a carnival and, working as a stick, cleaned up $200 in four days.
[US]N. Algren ‘The Last Carousel’ in Texas Stories (1995) 139: Dixon was the cool-off man and I was the stick.
[US]W. Keyser ‘Carny Lingo’ in http://goodmagic.com 🌐 Shill — Also ‘outside man,’ ‘stick,’ ‘capper,’ ‘front-worker’ or ‘timber.’ Employee who poses as a customer, playing a game (and being secretly allowed to win) or buying a ticket in order to motivate other customers to do likewis.

(c) (US Und./gambling) an accomplice who loses deliberately so as to encourage the victim to continue playing.

[US]Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 14/1: Stick – A confederate who wins or loses at dealer’s will.
[US]N. Algren Somebody in Boots 356: These women and girls [...] secured employment on the Fair grounds as waitresses, ‘sticks’ for gyp gambling joints.
[US]D. Maurer Big Con 7: Inside were several monte games going, replete with shills and ‘sticks’.
[US]W.L. Alderson ‘Carnie Talk’ in AS XXVIII:2 119: stick, n. An outside man; a come-one.

(d) (US prison) a close friend.

[US]Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Stick: Used by prisoners to designate someone as their pal or homeboy. The term is used by the correctional officers when referring to each other or other staff members as in the person who will stick by them in case trouble breaks out. Also called ‘stick man.’ (VA).

8. (US, also plank) a bar; thus behind the stick(s)/plank, working as a bartender; stick man, a bartender.

H.B. Darrach Jr. ‘Sticktown Nocturne’ in Baltimore Sun (MD) 12 Aug. A-1/1: Stick Town begins where Broadway empties into the Patasco and ends [...] at the back door of The Big Scoop. In between there are 47 bars.
H.B. Darrach Jr. ‘Sticktown Nocturne’ in Baltimore Sun (MD) 12 Aug. A-3/6: He [...] banged on the bar, but the stick man didn’t bat an eye .
[US]A.J. Liebling Honest Rainmaker (1991) 114: The impeccably white-appareled man behind the stick.
[US]B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 150: plank 1. the counter in a bar. ‘Behind the plank’ = working as a bartender or serving drinks.
[US](con. 1949) G. Pelecanos Big Blowdown (1999) 171: Jackie Harris, the bartender [...] was behind the stick.
[US]G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 179: He [...] had never had a police move off his barstool when he stepped up to the stick.
[US]R. Price Lush Life 19: He took a moment to study the new hires behind the stick [...] a white kid [...] who was leaning on the zinc bartop .
[US]G. Pelecanos (con. 1972) What It Was 47: Sitting at the stick, having himself a quiet drink.
[US]T. Robinson ‘Last call’ in Dirty Words [ebook] Josh [...] had been behind the sticks for twenty years.

9. (UK/US black) a prostitute [her role as a stick, i.e. tool, who solves a pimp’s financial problems].

[US]J.L. Dillard Lex. Black Eng. 88: The prostitute, or pross, is called the pimp’s stick – the tool with which he solves his economic problems. (Compare the jazzman’s use of ax to refer to his musical instrument, a saxophone or even a piano.).

10. a reprimand, a criticism; verbal aggression in general; usu. as get stick v., to be on the receiving end of these attacks.

[UK](con. c.1928) D. Holman-Hunt My Grandmothers and I (1987) 160: Crikey, I shall get awful stick from the Mater when she sees you.
[UK]J. Barlow Burden of Proof 73: A lot of stick, I thought, with my record. A lot of stick from that one. But he was very fair.
[UK]G.F. Newman Villain’s Tale 57: Getting a lot of stick from my old lady to get a job. Be perfectly honest I’m thinking about it.
[UK]Barr & York Sloane Ranger Hbk 158: Sloanes have lots of words for anger and its consequence, [...] ‘Gave him stick’ (‘I got stick’).
[UK]A. Sayle Train to Hell 149: Imagine the stick the lads would get from opposing fans.
[Aus]C. Bowles G’DAY 53: Hoggie’s really takin some stick.
[UK]Guardian 13 Aug. 4: At first we took a bit of stick.
[UK]Independent on Sun. Sport 13 Mar. 22/5: He gave me a little bit of stick for that.
[Scot]T. Black Artefacts of the Dead [ebook] She’s been getting some stick at school.
[UK]R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 112: Unaware quite how much stick they got ashore, I’d naively ponced omi-palones must be the master race.

11. violence.

[UK]D. Cammell Performance [film script] Putting a bit of stick about, putting the frighteners on flash little twerps.
[UK]G.F. Newman A Prisoner’s Tale 38: The man had to be getting more stick than he deserved.
[UK]S. Thomas in Guardian 2 July n.p.: Town foxes [,...] come in for a lot of unnecessary stick.

12. (US prison, also long stick, sharp stick) influence, ‘clout’.

[US]Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 34: Stick also Sharp Stick and Long Stick A persons influence or clout. When a person has a great deal of influence and can get things accomplished, he is said to have a sharp stick. An abundance of stick is referred to as long stick.

13. (US black) an act of sexual intercourse.

[US]UGK ‘Cramping My Style’ 🎵 You’re down for a love affair / BUT SEE, I’M ONLY DOWN FOR A QUICK STICK!

14. see schtick n.

Pertaining to drugs

In compounds

In phrases

blast a stick (v.)

(drugs) to smoke marijuana.

[US]W.S. Burroughs letter Letters to A. Ginsberg 1953-7 (1982) 174: Just blast a stick and walk out in the garden to dig the sunset .
[US]‘Lou Rand’ Gay Detective (2003) 86: They’ve been blasting, two or three sticks a piece.
[US]ONDCP Street Terms 3: Blast a stick — To smoke marijuana.
L. Baldwin Angle of Attack [ebook] Shall we blast a stick, she whispers close, a couple blades, some dank, a roofie.
blow a stick (v.)

(drugs) to smoke cannabis.

[US]Illicit Narcotics Traffic (US Congress Hearings) 8-10 4168: ‘Blow a stick’ — Smoke a marihuana cigarette. ‘I’m way down’ — I need some marihuana. [...] ‘Blow tea, hay or jive’ — Smokes marihuana.
[US]E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
[US]ONDCP Street Terms 3: Blow a stick — To smoke marijuana.
break a stick (v.)

to smoke a marijuana cigarette.

[US]J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.
‘Lord & Marshall’ Girl Called Honey 147: ‘Ever make pot? Ever break a stick with a buddy? Ever smoke up and dream?’.
stick of gage (n.) (also stick of dynamite, …pot, …tea, …weed) [gage n.2 /pot n.5 /tea n. (4a)/weed n.1 (1d)]

a marijuana cigarette.

[US]N. Macleod You Get What You Ask For 112: Meet Louise, Henry Lee said as he passed Allan a stick of tea.
[US]R. Chandler Farewell, My Lovely (1949) 66: I knew a guy once who smoked jujus [...] Three highballs and three sticks of tea and it took a pipe wrench to get him off the chandelier.
[US]J.W. Arnold ‘Lang. Delinquent Boys’ in AS XX:2 122/2: They ignite the shoestring at the incinerator and carry it to a place where it is safe to light a ‘stick of gage’.
[US]‘Hal Ellson’ Duke 60: I [...] went straight home and had a stick of dynamite.
[US]N. Algren ‘Watch Out for Daddy’ in Entrapment (2009) 115: What Daddy is best at is just hanging around the house [...] with a stick of tea in his teeth.
[US]H. Ellson Golden Spike 127: He lit up a stick of pot and watched the others. He felt enlivened and asked a girl to dance. While he was dancing, he noticed another girl. She looked high.
[US]H. Simmons Corner Boy 26: Jake felt like he had just climbed off a stick of tea.
[US]P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 58: I saw a hand, and between its fingers was a stick of pot.
[US] (con. 1920s) in L. Bergreen Louis Armstrong 283: I was actually in Chicago when I picked up my first stick of gage, and I’m telling you I had myself a ball.
[US]J. Stahl Perv (2001) 252: Have a stick of dynamite.
[UK]Indep. Rev. 16 Mar. 3: Reefers or muggles or joints or sticks of tea or whatever they were called that year.
[UK]L. Kwesi Johnson ‘Double Scank’ in Mi Revalueshanary Fren 4: Him seh him dont even hav a stick a weed.
[UK]D. O’Donnell Locked Ward (2013) 179: It’s not just sticks of tea nowadays. That skunk stuff is up to ten times more powerful.

Pertaining to the penis

In compounds

stick book (n.) (also stickster, sticky)

(Aus.) a pornographic book or magazine.

[Aus]R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 45: Stick Books Pornographic books.
[Aus]Aldrich & Wotherspoon Gay Perspectives 54: In prisons and the military one-handed reading matter is stick-books, while prisoners also talk about bat material.
[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 178/1: stick-book (also stickyor stickster) n. a pornographic magazine.
stickman (n.)

see separate entry.

stick pussy (n.) [pussy n. (1)] (US gay/prison)

1. the penis, in a homosexual context.

[US]M. Braly False Starts 300: Stick pussy, that’s what I’ll give you, some nice stick pussy.
[US]S. Morgan Homeboy 179: There’s been so much stick pussy shoved up that Hershey road they could rent it out for a convention center.
[US]B.G. Jones Dillirgaf? 307: Once Heaven was painted and dressed, you’d either have to be informed of her manhood, or come face to face with the stick pussy to know the difference.
[US]T. Pluck Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] ‘She said these guys sucked her cock better than anyone [...] Called it “stick pussy”’.

2. a young inmate, forced into homosexuality.

[US]B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 161: sexually oppressed, constantly raped victim; usually straight [...] stick pussy.
sticksman (n.)

see separate entry.

In phrases

dip one’s stick (v.)

of a man, to have sexual intercourse.

[US] in P.R. Runkel Law Unto Themselves 135: She likes sex, but she wouldn’t let me dip my stick until I’d known her for about six’d [sic] months.
[US](con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 235: I was beginning to wonder about you, that’s all. Glad to hear you’re dipping your stick somewhere.

General uses

In phrases

dry stick (n.) [SE dry]

an unpleasant, humourless person.

[US]N.Y. Dly Herald 6 Oct. 4/2: Here Mr Dry Stick arose and interupted the speaker by saying that if he wanted to be immortal he had better be original.
[US]Forbes & Greene Rich Men of Massachussetts 75: But notwithstanding all of his wealth and independence, he is a dry stick in society, and is likely to remain so .
[UK]Leeds Intelligencer 28 Aug. 12/2: The present action was brought to vindicate the character of Mrs Yescombe from a foul and vicious libel [...] contained in a book [...] entitled ‘Dry Sticks Faggotted’.
[Scot]Dundee Courier 15 July 2/7: The letter of your correspondent ‘Dry Stick’ is a very impertinent billet.
[US]Chicago Trib. 25 Sept. 6/6: ‘Your father’s such a dry old stick, we are much better without him’.
[US]Louisana Capitolian (Baton Rouge, LA) 21 May 8/3: We were commanded by some peripatetic [...] madman, whose forte was pedestrianism [...] and such a dry old stick too!
[UK]Sunderland Dly Echo 2 May 3/2: A dull speaker was often called a ‘dry stick’ .
[UK]J. Conrad Typhoon 143: All the chaps of the black-squad are as decent as they make that kind, and old Sol, the Chief, is a dry stick. We are good friends.
[Ire]Joyce Ulysses 720: Floey made me go to that dry old stick Dr Collins for womens diseases on Pembroke road your vagina he called it.
Belfast Teleg. 20 June 7/3: ‘I heard [...] of a clergyman whom was described by his people as a “dry old stick”’.
[Scot]Eve. Teleg. 27 Apr. 2/3: The matron of Gresham Nursing Home [...] wasn’t the dry old stick they expected.
[Ire]P. Quigley Borderland 138: ‘I’m a bit of a dry stick,’ she warned.
[UK]Guardian Guide 15–21 May 55: What better way to get rid of the dry old stick.
[Scot]A. Parks February’s Son 112: ‘Bit of a dry stick for my tastes but he’s well thought of’.
give someone (some) stick (v.)

to threaten, to criticize roughly; occas. to beat up.

[UK]Essex Co. Standard 6 Oct. 7/2: Witness [...] denied that he used an oath towards defendant, or threatened to ‘give him sticks’.
[UK]Yorks. Eve. Post 15 Nov. n.p.: ‘I would have this fellow who dropped this on a rough wicket in front of me and I would give him some stick’.
[SA]B. D’Oliveira D’Oliveira Affair 80: The crowd gave him some ‘stick’ as he walked back for his next bowl.
[UK]New Society 50 177/2: He is two minutes late with the keys, and the dry throats give him some stick as they scamper in. A punk curses him; a tv wrestler tweaks his tie, then threatens worse.
[UK]Barr & York Sloane Ranger Hbk 158: Sloanes have lots of words for anger and its consequence, [...] ‘Gave him stick’ (‘I got stick’).
[Ire]Irish Indep. (Dublin) 11 June 20/3: His fans are very loyal — they also write letters when I give him stick.
[UK]G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 121: Daisy hated Elsie and used to give Fred some stick over her.
[UK]K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 50: He’s half thinking about [...] going home to give his missus stick.
[US]J. McCourt ‘Vilja de Tanquay Exults’ in Queer Street 294: You must expect [...] / the Great British Press to give you stick if you’re / Anomalous in any way.
[UK](con. 1990s) N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 462: Big hard coppers who are full of piss and vinegar on the streets and in police cells when giving me stick suddenly turn into sycophantic schoolboys when faced with a few geezers in wigs.
[Aus]R. Hughes Things I Didn’t Know (2007) 184: It was their [i.e. the press] standard performance to give him stick.
give something (some) stick (v.)

to exert effort on, to use something heartily, usu. of something mechanical .

Ottowa Jrnl (Ontario) 5 Feb. 12/5: My hesitation to give him [i.e a fish] stick let him reach the weeds [...] and dispose of the hooks.
[UK](con. 1960s) A. Frewin London Blues 89: What kept you? I been giving this horn stick for ten minutes!
[Ire]J. O’Connor Salesman 208: You’re on the dual carriageway where you can really open the throttle and give it some stick.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

stick and bangers (n.) [SE banger, that which bangs together]

1. a billiard cue and the balls with which one plays.

[UK]J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 234/1: Stick and bangers (Sporting). Billiard cue and balls. A phrase having also an erotic meaning.

2. the penis and testes.

see sense 1.
stickman (n.)

see separate entry.

stick slinger (n.)

a violent thief, working with a prostitute.

[UK]Bell’s New Wkly Messenger 9 Mar. 6/2: The several descriptions of London thieves are bludgers and stick slingers, or those who go out plundering with women; star-glazers, or those who cut out shop windows; snoozers, or those who sleep at railway hotels; [...] dragsmen, or those who rob carts.
[UK]H. Mayhew Great World of London 46: Those who plunder with violence; as [...] ‘bludgers’ or ‘stick-slingers,’ who rob in company with low women.
[Aus]Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 1: Stick Slingers - Plunderers in company with prostitutes.
[Aus]Truth (Perth) 9 July 5/7: This ugly word [i.e. bludger] was not, we are glad to say, invented in Australia. So long ago as 1856, it was used by Henry Mayhew in his book, ‘The Great World of London.’ He there stated that those who plundered with violence were ‘known as ‘bludgers’ or ‘stick-slingers,’ who rob in company with low women.’.
[Aus]Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 71: Stick Slingers: ‘Plunderers in company with prostitutes’.

In phrases

big stick (n.) [? their real or fig. truncheon or similar badge of office/chastisement. Note Theodore Roosevelt’s dictum: ‘Speak softly and carry a big stick’] (orig. US)

1. an important or self-important person.

[US] in ‘O Henry’ ‘Supply and Demand’ in Works 726: In fact, I’m the Big Stick.
[US]Lincoln Jrnl Star (NE) 22 Oct. 11/8: ‘How can you stand Ferdie? He’s such a big stick’.
[US]F. Caprio Adequate Male 54: We discover these same implications in such colloquial expressions as ‘He thinks he’s a Big Shot’— or ‘He’s the Big Stick’.
[US] in DARE.
[US] in J. Breslin Damon Runyon (1992) 107: Owney Madden [...] was the big stick that allowed Runyon to loll with the worst murderers.
[US]Chicago Trib. sect. 5 15 Feb. 11/2: He was a ‘big stick’ type of guy.

2. fig., authority, violence.

[Aus]D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 41: I wouldn’ t get rough with Hill at first. There are all sorts of ways of getting what you want in this world, and sometimes the big stick don’ t work.

3. (US) dynamite.

[UK]K. Mackenzie Living Rough 129: I still maintain that the big stick (dynamite) and sabotage are the most effective weapons the workers have.
beat them off with a shitty stick (v.) (also fight them off...)

(Aus.) of any gender, to reject sexual advances.

[Aus]People 5 July 14/3: Chances of pulling a root: James Bond has to beat them off with a shitty stick, so we reckon there’ll be no worries in that department.
[Aus]S.J. Smith Joe Public 149: She’s not just physically beautiful; she’s also got a gorgeous personality, which makes it all the more intriguing as to why she’s not beating them off with a shitty stick!
[Aus]D. Cox Gone for a Burton 112: Loads of drink, and not a man near them for three or four hours. We will be the cocks of the walk. [...] We’ll have to fight them off with a shitty stick.
[Aus]A. Parkinson Leg It! 83: ‘Beating them off with a shitty stick love.’ ‘Ooh, you have such a way with words you little charmer’.
[Aus]Beesley & Morris In-Betweeners Scriptbook 137: TERRY CARTWRIGHT Yeah, I’ll be there, fighting the girls off with a shitty stick.
good end of the stick (n.)

good luck, an advantage.

[Aus]Labor Call (Melbourne) 2 Jan. 5/4: This popular gentleman lias been endeavoring to better the conditions of the letter carriers [...] and in many other ways keeping up the good end of the stick for the workers.
[Aus]Herald (Melbourne) 2 Sept. 14/3: Yokel [...] may be relied on to havoea good end of the ‘stick’ in any such clashes.
Parlty Debates Western Aus. 1993: The government wants the good end of the stick.
[Aus]D. Whish-Wilson Shore Leave 47: [H]e reckoned he got the good end of the stick compared to Leonie.
have the stick (v.)

(Aus.) to be finished, to be permanently damaged.

[Aus]T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 49: When are you bunnies going to wake up that you’ve had the stick?
D. Wolfe Brass Kangaroo 281: Look at this truck now... She’s just about had the stick. Just about wore out [AND].
keep at the stick’s end (v.)

to snub, to keep ‘at arm’s length’.

[Scot]R.L. Stevenson Kidnapped 70: Even the captain, though he kept me at the stick’s end the most part of the time, would sometimes unbuckle a bit and tell me of the fine countries he had visited.
on one’s own stick (adv.)

(US) by one’s self.

[US](con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 166: She [...] communed with Monroe on her own stick.
off one’s stick (adj.)

mad, crazy.

[UK](con. WWII) G. Sire Deathmakers 307: I think you’re off your mucking stick [...] They’ll shoot your balls off.
on the stick [the gearstick of a car or joystick of an aircraft, both of which exert control]

efficient, aware, in control; thus get on the stick v., to get down to work, focus.

[US]E. Reid Shame of N.Y. 65: The [police] would count on three collars at each spot—the two guys working the floor and the one guy ‘on the stick’ at the door.
[US]Hepster’s Dict. 4: Get on the stick – Get on the ball.
[US]D.J. Marlowe Vengeance Man (2007) 36: It was time I got on the stick and did somethinhg about it.
[US](con. 1969) M. Herr Dispatches 53: I know that a lot of people never got up from that kind of sleep [...] some called them fucked (If he’d been on the stick . . .).
[US]R. Price Breaks 37: Get on the stick and land some kind of job.
(con. 1952) W.D. Myers Bad Boy 130: ‘[Y]ou need to be responsible for what you are doing in school. [...] [Y]ou will have to get yourself on the stick, Mr. Myers’.
[US]W.D. Myers Sunrise Over Fallujah 247: ‘If it’s not risky, why doesn’t he get his little butt on the stick and do it himself?’.
[US]J. Jackson Pineapple Street 152: ‘Sasha, there’s never a perfect time to have a baby,’ her mother said. [...] ‘Get on the stick’.
put the stick about (v.) (also put some stick about)

to use violence, usu. in a criminal context.

[UK]D. Cammell Performance [film script] Putting some stick about, putting the frighteners on flash little twerrps.
[UK]T. Parker Frying-Pan 41: When you went in, you started putting the stick about right away.
[UK]G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 20: But then the Mafia wasn’t exactly shy about putting some stick around and hurting people.
short end (of the stick) (n.) (also crap end of the stick, crappy end..., dirty end..., raw end..., shit end..., shitty end..., short end of the funnel, ...of the shitstick, shitten end of a brick) [crap adj./crappy adj. (5)/shit adj. (1)/shitty adj.1 (3)/shitten adj. (2); the funnel is that which feeds meat into a mincing machine]

(orig. US) unfair treatment, deliberately engineered bad luck; note extrapolation in cit. 1951.

[UK] in Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 46: [song title] The Shitten End Of A Brick.
[US]Bulletin (US Congress) 9 pt 2 20:27: Prefer ad valorem duty, because under specific duty the honest fellow is liable to get the short end of the rope.
[US]Dos Passos Three Soldiers 272: Ah guess you’re right, Judkie; we gits the raw end of the stick.
[US]Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer 284: We cleaned up the squareheads, didn’t we? And now, when we come home, we get the dirty end of the stick.
[US]E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 63: He gave me the dirty end of the stick one time.
[US](con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 202: You’re all good guys, but you’re gonna get [...] the shitty end of the stick.
[US]N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 85: Don’t try to do too much for people or you’ll wind up in the short end of the funnel.
[US]M. Spillane One Lonely Night 11: No more sticks with dirty ends on them either.
[US]E. Hunter Blackboard Jungle 28: Where you get the dirty end of the stick in one spot, you get the mink-lined end of the stick in another spot. [Ibid.] 29: Whether or not Solly Klein got the crappy end of the stick was not a matter of great importance.
[US]B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 243: You’ve got some other brothers, and they’re getting the short end.
[US](con. 1950) E. Frankel Band of Brothers 350: Able Company’s always getting the crap end of the stick.
[Aus]D. Hewett Bobbin Up (1961) 74: The eldest always copped the short end of the stick.
[US]T. Berger Reinhart in Love (1963) 31: A world where a gifted Negro got the dirty end of the stick – and took it.
[US]T. Southern Blue Movie (1974) 70: Job!?! Job!?! You mean he gave me the first shit end of the stick I ever got, that’s the job eh gave me, He beat me for two-and-a-half points of gross, that’s what he did!
[US]L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 69: Artists who don’t fit in or don’t look like they would, [...] get drubbed with the short end of the shit stick now and then.
[US](con. 1960s) D. Goines Whoreson 290: We don’t want to give you the short end of the stick.
[US]R. Barrett Lovomaniacs (1973) 384: You’d be getting the crappy end of the stick.
[US]H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 353: shit (or shitty) end of the stick. The worst end of any deal; bad treatment in general. The phrase is often prettied up as the dirty (or short) end of the stick.
[US]Source Oct. 162: Either way the girl ends up with the short end of the stick.
[US]Simon & Burns ‘Time After Time’ Wire ser. 3 ep. 1 [TV script] When you get the shit end of the stick, come to me.
[US]T. Pluck Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] [E]ven if he did, who got the shitty end of the stick?
stick of wood (n.)

a fool.

[UK]T. Lucas Lives of the Gamesters (1930) 135: The barber [...] begins to preach to the boy, in telling him what a pure stick of wood he was, to follow whoring so early.
sticks and stones (n.)

see separate entry.

swinging the stick (n.)

see under swing v.

up the stick (adj.) [var. up the pole adj.2 ]

(orig. Aus.) pregnant.

[Aus]Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 71: Stick, up the: (of a girl or woman) to be pregnant.
[Aus]T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 43: He’s got a she [cat] he calls Marika. It’s up the stick, too.
[UK]J. Orton Entertaining Mr Sloane Act II: Told him she’s up the stick did you?
[Aus](con. 1940s–60s) Hogbotel & ffuckes ‘Craven A’ in Snatches and Lays 43: She’d been up the stick so often that the courts declare / Her vagina constitutes a legal thoroughfare.
[Aus]R.G. Barratt ‘I Might be a Racist, But’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] [W]hen your boyfriend got you up the stick, these children born out of wedlock were referred to as ‘illegitimate’.
[Ire]R. Doyle Snapper 65: I believe Gerry Foster’s young fella’s after puttin’ some young one from Coolock up the stick.
[Scot]I. Welsh Glue 50: Nae wey wid she be up the stick fae that [i.e. a ‘knee trembler’], cause aw the spunk jist faws oot.
[Aus]R.G. Barrett Rosa Marie’s Baby (2013) [ebook]‘He’s got her up the stick and pissed off to New Zealand when they let him out of the rathouse’.
[Scot](con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 54: Ye go oot without a fuckin pill whin thaire’s fuckin spunk flyin aboot, ye git up the fuckin stick!
[Aus] L. Redhead ‘Grassed’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] Sharni was up the stick again and it was too expensive to move back to the inner city.
[Scot]I. Welsh Decent Ride 413: Yvette’s look reminds ays ay the one she gied ays [...] when she telt ays she wis up the stick.
[UK]M. Herron Secret Hours 275: Miles shrugged. ‘If you’re up the stick, I’ve a number you can call’.

In exclamations