stickler
Other forms: sticklers
A stickler is someone who insists that things are done in a certain way. Say you’re getting married and want to write your own vows, but your partner’s mother demands that you have a traditional ceremony. The mother is a stickler for tradition.
Stickler has its origins in a word meaning umpire, which may allude to a stickler’s bossy nature. Difficult problems or puzzles are called sticklers. It is helpful when remembering the definition of stickler that it has the word “stick” in it. So someone who “sticks” to the rules is a stickler.
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Vocabulary lists containing stickler
Simon Kelleher publishes gossip about his classmates online. When he unexpectedly dies during detention, the four students who were in the room with him become prime suspects in his murder.
A sharp-eyed editor explains how small differences in punctuation can have enormous consequences.
For Merci Suárez, sixth grade is a year of change. A scholarship student at the posh Seaward Pines Academy, Merci must juggle extra community service and family responsibilities, all while coping with a nasty classmate and her beloved grandfather's declining health.