stickman meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

stickman

noun

Etymology From stick + -man.

8 senses

A simple drawing of a man with lines to represent limbs and torso.

A dealer in gambling who gathers the dice with a stick.

Then, when it was his turn to shoot, he reached out with a completely empty hand and caught the dice the stickman threw to him.1980, John Scarne, Scarne on Dice, page 275:
The most reliable stickman on the floor, Jimmy McGuire, was running the table. Data could hear his silky tenor before he could see the player due to the dense ring of spectators around the pit.2014, Jeffrey Lang, The Light Fantastic (Star Trek: The Next Generation), New York, NY: Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 68:

A player in a game played with a stick (such as hockey or lacrosse).

With defeats only at the hands of two club teams, the Crescents and the Mount Washington Club, the Orange and Black stickmen have an otherwise unbroken record of victories over Yale, Harvard, Swarthmore, Stevens, Rutgers, and New York University.1924 May 21, The Princeton Alumni Weekly, volume XXIV, number 32, page 702:
Because they have carried the puck so often and for so many miles, centers are usually the most experienced stickmen, and their talents are necessary to win a face-off.1972, Gerald Eskenazi, A Thinking Man’s Guide to Pro Hockey, New York, N.Y.: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., →ISBN, page 41:

1 more example

In an era when slashing was tolerated more than it is in contemporary hockey, Ed Van Impe was one of the most feared stickmen in the NHL.2003, Stan Fischler, Shirley Fischler, Who’s Who in Hockey, Kansas City, Mo.: Andrews McMeel Publishing, →ISBN, page 429:

US A person who makes confectionery by pulling candy onto a stick.

Stick candy is made by a stick puller or stickman, who pulls the hard candy after it has been boiled; […]1903, United States. Census Office, Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900, number 270, page 1189:

UK, Archaic, Slang A pickpocket's accomplice who takes the stolen goods in case the pickpocket is searched.

In some cases, when the property is taken from the drunken man, one of the women on some pretext steps to the door and passes it to the “stickman” standing outside, who then makes off with it.1861, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor; […], volume IV (Those that Will Not Work), London: Griffin, Bohn, and Company, […], →OCLC, page 282:
It is doubtful if the Victorian Londoner needed any warning, for the artful mobsmen, toolers, whizzers and dippers, together with their stickman accomplices, were everywhere in the crowds, in the underground, on railway trains […]1976, Michael Harrison, Beyond Baker Street: A Sherlockian Anthology, page 117:

A stick seller, especially of walking sticks.

There’s only one stick-man in the streets, as far as I know, I think—that has what you may call a capital in sticks. Only the other day I saw him sell a registered stick near Charing-cross.1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor; […], volume I (The London Street-folk. Book the First.), London: [George Woodfall], →OCLC, page 438:

Slang A cocksman.

Entertainment, Lifestyle, Music A male drummer.

Our second stickman was much more behind the scenes. Earl Young was the in-house drummer at Philadelphia Records.2019, Alon Shulman, The Second Summer of Love: How Dance Music Took Over the World, Kings Road Publishing, →ISBN: