?1542 R. Taverner On Saynt Andrewes Day Gospels f. xxxiii^v Such a sticker by Christ in al his temptations was thys holy Apostle saynte Bartilmew.

1674 N. Fairfax Treat. Bulk & Selvedge 133 Motion or going on by steps, is such a sticker unto body, that it can no more belong to Ghost, than thinking can to that.

1824 in Spirit of Public Jrnls. (1825) 516 When wed she'll change, for Love's no sticker, And love her husband less than liquor?

a1849 H. Coleridge Ess. & Marginalia (1851) II. 75 The same class of fastidious wits who in France became Zoilists, in England were the stoutest stickers to Homer.

1864 Once a Week 16 July 86/2 I should like to join your party. I'm a sticker at work, and I'll tell you now what offer I can make.

1869 M. Arnold Culture & Anarchy Pref. 55 For we are fond stickers to no machinery, not even our own.

1895 Westm. Gaz. 30 Apr. 6/1 These are the best ‘stickers’, as, knowing the difficulties, they do not expect to strike gold immediately, but are content to search for the metal.

1911 Molong (New S. Wales) Argus 11 Aug. 1 I'm still a sticker to the Labor Party.

1916 Anzac Bk. 130 He was no ‘sticker’, and in the third year of his medical course he had side-tracked himself.

1930 L. G. D. Acland Early Canterbury Runs vii. 162 Great horsemen and ‘stickers’ to bucking horses.

1979 N. Hynd False Flags viii. 71 Bobby wasn't any quitter. He was a sticker.

2003 Financial Times 24 Dec. 8 I would have stuck it out in the National Health Service because I am a sticker.

1779 C. Macklin Love Alamode ii. 15 I have my own Hacks, that are all steel to the Bottom—all Blood-stickers and Lappers every Inch of them, my dear, that will come through if they have but one Leg out of the four. [printed thus; first authorized edition, 1793: I have my own hacks, steel to the bottom, all blood—stickers and lappers every inch, my dear—that will come through if they have but one Leg out of the four.]

1834 A. Courtenay Autobiogr. & Lett. 184 Those cab-horses are most of 'em regular stickers.

1860 G. J. Whyte-Melville Market Harborough 18 We have a vast of plough hereabout, and I never see such a sticker through dirt.

1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer x You've got..an out-and-out good hack... I'll forfeit my month's wages if he ain't a sticker, as well.

1925 Scotsman 15 June 9 A thorough sticker, but I doubt his finishing pace.

2008 Sunday Star-Times (Auckland) (Nexis) 17 Feb. 14 Collett said he would be stunned if Prize Touch could not stay 3200 metres. ‘He's one of those classic home bred horses. It's a real sticker's family.’

1824 T. F. Dibdin Libr. Compan. 573 I fear it [sc. the book] will be a sticker.

1887 G. R. Sims Mary Jane's Mem. x. 128 Stickers are servants that the [registry] office finds it hard to get places for.

1903 J. S. Farmer Slang Sticker, 4 (colloquial), a lingering guest.

1922 Advertising & Selling Mar. 17/2 One customer after another passes it up, and finally the fellows out on the floor won't even bother to show it; it gets in the ‘hoodoo’ class. And it becomes known unofficially as a ‘sticker’.

1940 Amer. Gas Jrnl. Jan. 18/3 In case you don't know what a sticker is—but you do know, because every store in the world has certain items of merchandise that stick and stick and stick, that won't be sold.

1832 P. Egan Bk. Sports xxii. 344/2 At the bat and the bottle they find him a sticker.

1855 F. Lillywhite Guide to Cricketers (ed. 8) 56 A ‘sticker’ with ‘confidence’ was all that was required, to have turned the ‘tide’ in their favour.

1903 W. J. Ford in H. G. Hutchinson Cricket vi. 190 Louis Hall (the pioneer of stickers).

1977 Times 12 July 10/1 When Chappell was adding 55 with O'Keeffe, who is well known as a sticker, there were visions of England having to make 175.

2010 C. Martin-Jenkins in J. Stern My Favourite Cricketer 11 He began his cricket life as a carefree, attacking batsman but established himself as an ultra-reliable sticker.

1889 H. H. McConnell Five Years Cavalryman iv. 35 The leaves when submitted to the action of fire in order to burn off the sharp stickers, are used as food for cattle.

1898 G. Atherton Californians 231 Trennahan..plucked the ‘stickers’ from his trousers.

1945 B. Macdonald Egg & I (1946) iii. viii. 94 My hair and shoulders were full of twigs and stickers.

2007 M. A. Cuate Journey to San Jacinto vi. 49 Jackie..turned up the bottom of her dress just enough to reveal several clusters of prickly stickers and burrs along the hemline.

a1585 P. Hume Flyting with Montgomerie (Tullibardine) ix. 61 in Poems A. Montgomerie (2000) I. 174 Tyk stikker.

1653 Seas Mag. 12 They..supply the Warlike Ships with Mariners, besides Carpenters, Coopers, Splitters, Bulkers, Dryers, and Packers, Stickers, and Smoakers of Herring-Net, and Cordmakers.

1730 W. Forbes Inst. Law Scotl. II. 150 Stickers or Fellers of Horses or Oxen in Time of leading Corns or Fuel.

1835 T. Hood in Athenæum 19 Dec. 943/3 Master Bardell the pig-butcher, and his foreman Samuel Slark, or, as he was more commonly called, Sam the Sticker.

1881 E. Ingersoll Oyster-industry (10th Census U.S.: Bureau of Fisheries) 249 Sticker, an oyster-opener who rests the oyster against the bench while he thrusts the knife between the valves.

1901 T. P. Ollason Mareel 67 Dey managed to secure da pok, wi' da aid o' da sticker.

1998 D. Fink Cutting Meatpacking Line 108 A sticker might come face to face with a live, angry, and frightened pig.

2015 J. Halley in N. K. Denzin & M. D. Giardina Qualitative Inq. (2016) xviii. 344 The sticker sometimes does not manage to cut the cow's throat in such a way that it bleeds out fast.

1772 Daily Advertiser 4 July Fine Lozenge and Square Gravers, Spit, Stickers and Knife Tools, &c, made of a fine Craft Steel.

1896 S. Baring-Gould Dartmoor Idylls viii. 188 Go and ax the butcher to lend you his sticker.

1924 Adventure 10 Oct. 25/1 He warded desperately with his sticker, leaning back to do so when he should have spurred his nag clear.

1997 G. Williams Diamond Geezers xxxv. 213 He made no effort to defend himself as Zaffir Khan strode forward and drove a blade into his belly, just stood there for a couple of seconds fingering the handle of the sticker.

1756 W. Tans'ur New Musical Gram. (ed. 3) ii. i. 84 The Movements of an Organ,..A Sticker, is a little Piece of Wood about one Third of an Inch Square,..having a Piece of Wire stuck in at each End.

1845 G. Dodd Brit. Manuf. 4th Ser. 160 The ‘under-hammer’ [acts] on the ‘sticker’.

1884 Encycl. Brit. XVII. 834 Where pressure has to be transmitted instead of a pull, thin but broad slips of wood are used, having pins stuck into their ends to keep them in their places. These are stickers.

1988 Organbuilder May 4/1 The organ was contained in a cabinet 4ft x 4ft x 1ft, the keyboard—more or less on top—operating a sticker action.

2003 Church Times 25 July 10/1 As Scott Whitely plays, we watch trackers, stickers and backfalls move up and down as keys and pedals are depressed.

1822 London Jrnl. Arts & Sci. 4 230 Common piano-fortes, without an escapement in their action, or where the sticker, or riser..is immoveable, possess the advantage of a great flexibility to the touch.

1870 E. Brinsmead Hist. Pianoforte 52 The sticker, or mopstick,..raised the damper at the same moment that the hammer was impelled against the string.

1885 C. G. W. Lock Workshop Receipts 4th Ser. 281/2 To repair a broken sticker hinge, unscrew the button [etc.].

1908 Times 19 Feb. 14/4 The first improvement..was in the sticker action.

1995 S. Pollens Early Pianoforte 197 The dampers, which extend to the highest note, are activated by a sticker mounted at the back of the key.

1862 Rep. Comm. of Elections Kline vs. Verree 11 in U.S. Congress. Serial Set (37th Congr. 2nd Sess.: House of Representatives Rep. No. 40) III In very many instances the ‘sticker’ was a smooth piece of paper pasted over a fold in the ballot, with no corresponding fold in the ‘sticker’, showing that the ‘sticker’ had been placed upon the ballot at some time after it had been folded.

1881 New Castle (Pa.) News 29 June 4/2 А number of our citizens are making threats of arresting parties who plaster advertising stickers on their building.

1888 C. A. Knight in Voice (N.Y.) July 5 Quotations..printed on one side of little slips of paper..to be gummed and used as ‘stickers’..on newspaper wrappers, [etc.].

1892 Med. World Oct. 382/1 You would put them in separate phials and use a ‘sticker’ on each, which you would mark in some way intelligible to yourself but not to your patient.

1919 Nation (N.Y.) 117/2 Defendants..had printed millions of seditious ‘stickers’.

1934 J. M. Cain Postman always rings Twice ii. 7 A guy came along that was all burned up because somebody had pasted a sticker on his wind wing.

1955 W. Gaddis Recognitions i. v. 192 I left all my luggage there covered with the most adorable stickers from everywhere, my dears, every chic hotel you ever heard of.

1959 Listener 21 May 884/1 An English ‘sticker’ about Nuclear Disarmament on the door of..the students' canteen.

1962 E. Godfrey Retail Selling & Organization ix. 91 Special delivery instructions..should be written clearly..on a special sticker attached to the despatch docket.

1976 J. I. M. Stewart Memorial Service xvi. 273 His magazine's supposed to be coming out tomorrow. Have you seen the stickers for it?

1998 Guardian 13 Nov. i. 24/5 Everything in the shop had a little orange sticker giving the equivalent euro price.

2002 S. Brett Torso in Town (2003) xxvi. 202 They're all for sale. Except for the ones with red stickers on. Those were bought at the Private View last night.

2011 S. Kelman Pigeon Eng. 13 The most wanted things to swap are football stickers and sweets.

1863 E. T. Johnston in Donnybrook Fair Comic Songster 19 All in postage-stamps (stickers), both large and small, Which stuck to the floor of the Hibernian Hall.

1904 ‘No. 1500’ Life in Sing Sing 253/1 Stickers, postage stamps.

1926 J. Black You can't Win ix. 107 You're a cinch to get some coin and a bundle of stickers out of every ‘P.O.’ You can peddle the stamps anywhere.

1996 Entertainm. Weekly 24 May 16/1 Speaking of Marilyn, if you want her stamp, flag down your mailman posthaste. The post office plans to stop selling the sex-goddess sticker.

1974 Montana Standard 1 Oct. 27/2 A four-door Chevy Impala,..with a vinyl roof and air-conditioning, carries a sticker of $5,750.

1989 Cycle Oct. 33/1 This has contributed to the highest resale value in all of motorcycling, which helps take the sting out a five-figure sticker.

1992 U.S. News & World Rep. 28 Dec. 110/4 Lust for Chrysler's gauche new hot rod had bid the price up to twice the sticker.

2013 Auto Week (Nexis) 13 May 11 Government incentives lower the price to a far more reasonable sticker.