Dictionary

stickleback en · NOUN

Etymology

From dialectal stickle (“a prickle, spine, sting”), from Old English sticel + bæc. See stick (transitive verb) and compare banstickle.

Meanings

1. Any one of numerous species of small fish of the family Gasterosteidae. The back is armed with two or more sharp spines. They inhabit both salt and brackish water, and construct nests from weeds.
   • [I]n my exile and irkeſome diſcontented abandonment, the ſillieſt millers thombe, or contemptible ſtickle-banck of my enemies, is as buſie nibbling about my fame, as if I were a deade man throwne amongeſt them to feede vpon. 1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC, page 1:

Forms

Deriveds

three-spined stickleback

Synonyms

sharpling · sticklebag · minnow

Translations (22)

sco bandy (fish of the family Gasterosteidae) · pl ciernik (fish of the family Gasterosteidae) · sco baanie (fish of the family Gasterosteidae) · ca punxoset (fish of the family Gasterosteidae) · nrf êpinnoche (fish of the family Gasterosteidae) · ru ко́люшка (fish of the family Gasterosteidae) · fi piikkikala (fish of the family Gasterosteidae) · bg къдринка (fish of the family Gasterosteidae) · ga biorach lodáin (fish of the family Gasterosteidae) · ga snáthaid mhara (fish of the family Gasterosteidae) · sv spigg (fish of the family Gasterosteidae) · cy crothell (fish of the family Gasterosteidae) · ga garmachán (fish of the family Gasterosteidae) · bg бодливка (fish of the family Gasterosteidae) · izh kärhiäin (fish of the family Gasterosteidae) · fr épinoche (fish of the family Gasterosteidae) · gmq-scy pyn (fish of the family Gasterosteidae) · nl stekelbaars (fish of the family Gasterosteidae) · lb Spuerk (fish of the family Gasterosteidae) · uk колю́чка (fish of the family Gasterosteidae) · gd réibean (fish of the family Gasterosteidae) · de Stichling (fish of the family Gasterosteidae)