stick

1. n. a baseball bat. (Baseball.)

□ He started to run and tripped over the stick.

□ He holds the stick up higher than most batters.

2. n. a pool cue.

□ He drew the stick back slowly, sighted again, and gave the cue ball a sharp knock.

□ The guy was so mad he broke the stick over his knee!

3. n. a golf club.

□ These aren’t my sticks, and you aren’t my caddy. What’s going on around here?

□ I wanted a new set of sticks for Christmas, but I got a snowmobile instead.

4. n. the lever that controls the horizontal and vertical surfaces of the tail of an aircraft.

□ The pilot pulled back on the stick, and the plane did nothing— being that he hadn’t even started the engine or anything.

□ You pull back on the stick, which lowers the tail and raises the nose, and up you go.

5. n. a gearshift lever in a car. (See also stick shift.)

□ I keep reaching for the stick in a car with automatic.

□ Put the stick in reverse and move back slowly.

6. n. a drunkard.

□ Some stick threw up on my car.

□ Get that stick out of here before he makes a mess.

7. n. a person’s legs. (Always plural.)

□ Get those sticks moving! Get over here now!

□ He’s got good sticks under him, but he won’t use them.

8. the sticks n. a rural or backwoods area. (Always with the in this ense and always plural.)

□ I hated living in the sticks.

□ You hear a lot about how things are in the sticks. They’re worse.