as in pickles
a difficult, puzzling, or embarrassing situation from which there is no easy escape
with both sets of in-laws insisting that we spend Thanksgiving with them, we were on a sticky wicket indeed
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Recent Examples of sticky wickets
Of philosophy’s many sticky wickets, consciousness is perhaps the most perplexing.
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Kevin Dickinson, Big Think, 20 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sticky wickets
Noun
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Working in batches if needed, arrange pickles in a single layer in air-fryer basket (do not overcrowd).—
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Along with the usual lettuce, tomato and mayo, the inaugural customer creation, introduced for a limited time in July 2025, dressed the brand’s staple burger patty and bun with American cheese, bacon, crispy onions, and pickles with golden onion rings and a smoky BBQ sauce.—
Noun
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Readers send Miss Manners not only their table and party questions, but those involving the more complicated aspects of life - romance, work, family relationships, child-rearing, death - as well as philosophical and moral dilemmas.—
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The following is a breakdown of those questions and others, and the key personnel dilemmas that remain unsolved as the World Cup nears.—
Noun
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Brooks’s screenplay makes ample space to dump praise upon its protagonist while bemoaning her many predicaments.—
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But this is just one of the many predicaments of writing memoir.—
Noun
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Officers saw multiple bullet holes on the metal fence dividing the properties and shell casings in his backyard, the affidavit said.—
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Add a pass rusher with the first pick, a receiver in Round 2 and then spend heavily on patching holes in free agency.—
Noun
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More is at stake than preserving the singular beauty of the sawgrass prairies of Everglades National Park or cypress swamps of the Big Cypress National Preserve.—
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By gathering second- and thirdhand traces and elusive sources and data, historians have illuminated communities in the forests of the Kongo region, the deltas of West Africa, the mangroves of Cuba, and the swamps of the Carolinas.—
Cite this Entry
“Sticky wickets.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sticky%20wickets. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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