stick together

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

stick together (third-person singular simple present sticks together, present participle sticking together, simple past and past participle stuck together)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To physically combine or join together by adhesion.
   • 2002, Georgia Sargeant, Celie Fago, Livia McRee, Polymer Clay‎^[1], →ISBN, page 33:

     It can be tricky to get the edges stuck together neatly. Alternatively, you can pinch them upward like a ruffled pie crust edge. When all the edges are stuck together, poke the straw into the little hole in the top where the points meet, and blow so the box inflates.

2. (idiomatic, intransitive) To remain united, to stay together in association or alliance.
   • 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], Act I:

     Her’s Parſon Ball an honeſt Prieſt, and telles vs that in charitie,
     VVe may ſticke together in ſuch quarrels honeſtly.

   • 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 158:

     The lines had realised that they had better stop fighting each other, and stick together in the face of the onslaught from the motor buses that were making horse buses obsolete.

   • 2015 June 18, Ed Yong, “Baboon-Trackers Herald New Age of Animal Behaviour Research”, in National Geographic‎^[2]:

     They need to stick together so they don’t get eaten, but different animals might want to head in different directions at any one time.

   • 2016, “Stick Together”, in Forgetting This, performed by Elijah N:

     You and I till the end, don't need to pretend / Again and again, we'll stick together / Everything is alright, with you by my side / We won't say goodbye, we'll stick together

Synonyms

• (combine by adhesion): cleave, cling; see also Thesaurus:adhere
• (unite): fuse, join, merge, wed; see also Thesaurus:join or Thesaurus:coalesce