▪ I. stickiness1
(ˈstɪkɪnɪs)
[f. sticky a.2 + -ness.]
The quality of being sticky; adhesiveness, glutinousness; also transf., hesitancy, stubbornness; awkwardness, unpleasantness.
| 1727 Bailey vol. II, Stickiness, Aptness to stick to. 1755 Johnson, Stickiness, adhesive quality; viscosity; glutinousness; tenacity. 1800 Gentl. Mag. LXX. i. 45 Which is preferable, the stickiness of the honey, or the greasiness of the hair? 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 601 In the case [of peritonitis] there may be merely some injection of polished surface, and in its place a general stickiness. |
| fig. 1864 Athenæum 14 May 683/3 [The picture] is almost free from over-sweetness, or ‘stickiness’, as some call it. |
| transf. 1933 C. Mackenzie Water on Brain viii. 115 Major Hunter-Hunt let his emotion over the stickiness of the Treasury evaporate in a deep sigh. 1947 ‘N. Blake’ Minute for Murder viii. 167 He had not imagined..that there was anything more in Billson's recalcitrance..than his usual official stickiness. 1948 Wodehouse Spring Fever xiii. 126 The intense stickiness of the situation. 1962 J. D. MacDonald Girl xii. 186 You do seem to have involved her in some sort of stickiness. |
▪ II. stickiness2
(ˈstɪkɪnɪs)
[f. sticky a.1 + -ness.]
Stiffness, woodenness. (Chiefly with reference to athletics.)
| 1910 Evening News 12 Mar. 2/6 The rapid improvement of the Light Blues [i.e. the Cambridge boat crew], contrasted with the ‘stickiness’ of their rivals. 1911 Marett Anthrop. v. 143 It would prove an endless task if I were to try here to illustrate at all extensively the stickiness, as one might almost call it, of primitive modes of speech. 1912 World 7 May Suppl. 2/2 For spectators the abolition of ‘offside’ means a game without any of the old ‘stickiness’. |