stick to v.
1. to remain loyal.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Misogonus in (1906) II ii: You must stick to her and stand to it like a man. | |
| London Prodigal E3: Sweete mistresse doe not weepe, ile sticke to you. | |
| Ram-Alley IV i: You shall find sir Sargeant she has friends, Will sticke to her in the common place. | |
| Provoked Husband I i: man.: I hope at least, you and your good Woman agree still. j. mood.: Ay! ay! much of a Muchness. Bridget sticks to me. | |
| School For Grown Children IV i: Stick to him, honest Bob! | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Nick of the Woods III 36: Tom Bruce, do you stick to the crittur, and he’ll holp you out of the skrimmage. | |
| Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs (1851) 49: I’d a’stuck to a feller that done that way, twell the cows come home—I’d cut the big vein in my neck before I’d ever desert sich a friend! | |
| Tom Brown’s School-Days (1896) 108: So let’s stick to him, and talk no more rot. | |
| Ask Mamma 318: So, charging Mr. Mordecai Nathan to stick to them for the money, promising him one per cent. more (making him eleven) on what he recovered. | |
| Ticket-Of-Leave Man Act III: Be steady — stick to work and home. | |
| Wilds of London (1881) 292: If he takes me for better or worse [...] why, he’ll have to stick to me. | |
| ‘Fallen by the Way’ Ballads of Babylon 6: Be pals, and stick tight to each other! | |
| Bath Chron. 3 Nov. 8/5: ‘Stick to the Union.’ The last words addressed by Mr Chamberlain to his friends in Birmingham on his departure to America. | |
| ‘The Little Crossing-Sweeper’ in Mr Punch’s Model Music Hall 83: Never in such slap-up quarters in my life, Sir, I’ll stick to yer, no fear! | |
| More Gal’s Gossip 120: Grace [...] has instructed her solicitor [...] to stick to ’em like a sick kitten to a hot brick. | |
| Laurens Advertiser (SC) 15 Jan. 4/3: If you’ll do it, every Man Jack o’ us’ll stick to you like a lean tick to a hog. | |
| Gem 11 Nov. 4: I know you’d always stick to a chum, Fatty. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | ‘Mate o’ Mine’ in Dinkum Aussie and Other Poems 4: Oh, mate o’ mine you stuck to me / When my heart was down and out. | |
| Gilt Kid 107: ‘Why don’t you go straight, Ken?’ she asked. ‘Then you might get a girl to stick to you.’. | |
| News of the World 11 June 7: Mrs. Croft also declared that Wilmott had been very good to her, that she still loved him, and meant to stick to him. | |
| They’re a Weird Mob (1958) 190: ‘Mean ter say yer gunna stick to old Nino?’ ‘For the rest of my life, if he’ll put up with me.’. | |
| Adolescent Boys of East London (1969) 28: I don’t fancy sticking to one girl all the time. Not me, mate. |
2. to maintain a position or opinion, to persist with; to concentrate on.
 | Lives of Noble Grecians 127: They should make no reckoning of all that brauery and brags, but should sticke to it like men, and lay it on the iacks of them. | |
| Ram-Alley III i: You and your servant Dash are made for ever, If you but stick to it now. | |
| Refusal 16: I rais’d my Fortune, Sir, as Milo lifted the Bull, by sticking to it every day [...] I sous’d them with Premiums, Child, and laid them on thick when the Stock was low. | |
| Vanity Fair III 57: Stick to it, my boy [...] there’s nothing like a good classical education! nothing! | |
| Medical Student 74: When you have stated any pathological fact—right or wrong— stick to it. | |
| Night in a Workhouse 40: Now then, my men, why don’t you stick to it? | |
| Dly Gaz. for Middlesborough 24 Dec. 3/1: On Sticking To it. [...] that kind of thing [...] comes by pegging away. | |
| Dolly Dialogues 94: There are some things one can’t stick to. | |
| Boy’s Own Paper 15 Oct. 37: Stick to it, old man! | |
| No. 5 John Street 92: He’s got ’im there. Stick to ’im, old Eight-and-Forty. | |
| Enemy to Society 67: They know as well as I do that their general scheme is founded on a fallacy. But they stick to it, just as I do, because it’s the best we have. | |
| (con. 1920s) Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 238: He had made his decision and would stick to it. | |
| Absolute Beginners 24: If they’d stick to their housekeeping [...] then no one would despise them. | |
| Cop This Lot 160: Just a matter o’ stickin’ to ut. | |
| Ball Four 9: Stick to your guns. Don’t let them push you around. | |
| London Fields 5: If you’re going to be violent, stick to women. Stick to the weak. |
In derivatives
persistence, determination.
| in Tenting on Plains 520: Old Rover, with the stick-to-it-iveness of a fox-hound when once on a trail, was in for [etc.] [DA]. | |
| 40 Years on the Rail 231: They devote their quick wit and their stick-to-ativeness to ‘sponging’ for a living [DA]. | |
| Osbourne Co. Farmer (KS) 2 May 1/3: Stick-to-it-iveness is responsible for the success of Cyrus Field. | |
| Burnley Gaz. 13 Mar. 1/6: [advert pic. caption] Stick-to-i-iveness of purpose. | |
| ‘Central Connecticut Word-List’ in DN III:i 21: stick-to-it-iveness, n. Perseverance. | |
| Dawn O’Hara (1925) 88: The [...] ingenuity and finesse, and stick-to-it-iveness that he expends in prying a single story out of some willing victim. | |
| Chicago Trib. 22 Feb. 25/7: Hosiery salesmen [...] possess backbone, intelligence and unshakeable stick-to-it-iveness. | |
| Laughing in the Jungle 312: Muster all your courage, determination, aggressiveness, stick-to-it-iveness. | |
| Lancaster Eagle Gaz. (OH) 6 Nov. 1/2: Patience, perseverance [and] stick-to-it-iveness — [...] are requisties [for success]. | |
| Far from the Customary Skies 265: It kinda went good with stick-to-it-ive-ness, an’ he had a plumb good share of that. | |
| Free-Lance Pallbearers 11: If there were more Negroes like you with tenacity, steadfastness, and stick-to-itiveness, there would be less of these tremors. | |
| Willy Remembers 197: He certainly has stick-to-itiveness. | |
| Miami News (FL) 19 Feb. 13/2: What was Altobelli’s formula for success as a care salesman? ‘Stick-to-it-ivess,’ he said. | |
| L.A. Times Calendar Weekend 7 Aug. 54R/2: Yes sir, there’s no substitute for good, old-fashioned stick-to-it-iveness. | |
| Lincoln Jrnl Star (NE) 18 Oct. 48/1: Mirrison, a democrat, demonstrated ‘stick-to-it-iveness’. |
In phrases
(US) to mind one’s own business; to get down to the task in hand.
| Polite Conversation 93: Come, Mr. Neverout, hold your Tongue, and mind your Knitting. | |
| Fogy Days, and Now 127: We were just getting down properly to our knitting in what is called the cyclone movement, when the music suddenly ceased. | |
| Wash. Post 22 May 4: If the Senate sticks close to its knitting, [...] then it is not improbable for Congress to adjourn about June 20 [DA]. | |
| Kansas City Sun (MO) 17 Feb. 3/5: [headline] Europe ‘Sticks to Its Knitting’. | |
| Downs News & Times (KS) 7 Aug. 6/1: The war didn’t teach very many people to mind their own knitting. | |
| Pleasure Man (1997) II ii: Just ’tend to your knittin’ kids. | |
| ‘Folk “Sayings” From Indiana’ in AS XIV:4 265: The busybody is advised to mind his own business by ‘Tend to your own knittin’’ or ‘Go on with your rat-killin’’. | |
| Tampa Bay Times (St Petersburg, FL) 21 Apr. 11/5: Thdere are better opportunities on a farm today than in the city, if one sticks to one’s knitting. | |
| S.F. Examiner (CA) 6 Apr. 40/5: Generally it’s a good idea to tend to one’s own knitting. | |
| Indianapolis Star (IN) 24 May 24/3: It takes a great deal of courage sometimes to stick to one’s own knitting. | |
| It (1987) 644: Once things got hot, I tended pretty much to my own knittin. | |
| Morn. Call (Allentown, PA) 26 Oct. 62: The poet laureate is free to lead a poetry circus or stick to one’s own knitting. | |
| Opal Country 419: ‘So I would be grateful [...] if you were to stick to your knitting’. |