Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Stickle \Stic"kle\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Stickled}; p. pr. & vb.
   n. {Stickling}.] [Probably fr. OE. stightlen, sti?tlen, to
   dispose, arrange, govern, freq. of stihten, AS. stihtan: cf.
   G. stiften to found, to establish.]
   1. To separate combatants by intervening. [Obs.]

            When he [the angel] sees half of the Christians
            killed, and the rest in a fair way of being routed,
            he stickles betwixt the remainder of God's host and
            the race of fiends.                   --Dryden.

   2. To contend, contest, or altercate, esp. in a pertinacious
      manner on insufficient grounds.

            Fortune, as she 's wont, turned fickle, And for the
            foe began to stickle.                 --Hudibras.

            While for paltry punk they roar and stickle.
                                                  --Dryden.

            The obstinacy with which he stickles for the wrong.
                                                  --Hazlitt.

   3. To play fast and loose; to pass from one side to the
      other; to trim.