stick1

noun

• 1a thin piece of wood that has fallen or been cut off a tree.
• a long, thin piece of wood used for support in walking or as a weapon.
• (in hockey, polo, and other games) a long, thin implement, typically made of wood, with a curved head or angled blade that is used to hit or direct the ball or puck.
• (sticks) (in field hockey) the foul play of raising the stick above the shoulder.
• [usually with modifier] a short, thin piece of wood used to impale food:lolly sticks
• (the sticks) informal goalposts or cricket stumps.
• Nautical, archaic a mast or spar.
• a piece of basic furniture:every stick of furniture just vanished

• 2something resembling or likened to a stick, in particular:
• a long, thin piece of something:a stick of dynamite cinnamon sticks
• used to refer to a very thin person or limb:the girl was a stick her arms were like sticks
• [as modifier] (of a figure) drawn with short, thin, straight lines:stick drawings of a man and girl
• a conductor’s baton.
• a gear or control lever.
• US a quarter-pound pack of butter or margarine.
• a number of bombs or paratroopers dropped rapidly from an aircraft: the sticks of bombs rained down
• a small group of soldiers assigned to a particular duty:a stick of heavily armed guards

• 3a threat of punishment or unwelcome measures (often contrasted with the offer of reward as a means of persuasion):training that relies more on the carrot than on the stickCompare with carrot (sense 3).
• [mass noun] British informal severe criticism or treatment:I took a lot of stick from the press

• 4 (the sticks) informal, derogatory rural areas far from cities or civilization:he felt hard done by living out in the sticks

• 5 [with adjective] informal, dated a person of a specified kind:Janet’s not such a bad old stick sometimes

• 6 Stock Exchange a large quantity of unsold stock, especially the proportion of shares which must be taken up by underwriters after an unsuccessful issue.