Meaning
In an awkward, difficult, or vulnerable position - one where any move may make things worse. Usually in the phrases 'be (batting) on a sticky wicket'. British English and the cricket-playing Commonwealth; the literal cricket sense has become rare. Informal and usually sympathetic; describes a predicament rather than criticising the person in it. Regional use: British English / Commonwealth.
Origin
A cricket term turned idiom. In cricket the wicket is the pitched strip between the stumps; after rain it turns damp and soft, the ball behaves unpredictably, and batting becomes genuinely hazardous. The Phrase Finder records the earliest known print use in Bell's Life in London of July 1882, describing a rain-affected match in which 'the Australians found themselves on a sticky wicket'; Wikipedia's article corroborates this 1882 citation. The figurative use is first recorded by the Phrase Finder in Jamaica's The Gleaner of April 1930, where a speaker said he was 'batting on rather a sticky wicket' about following a brilliant speech - the image spread naturally through cricket-playing countries. Since covered and better-drained pitches made literal sticky wickets a rarity, the phrase has survived almost entirely in its figurative sense.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- a sticky wicket
- bat on a sticky wicket
- batting on a sticky wicket
- be on a bit of a sticky wicket
Usage Examples
- Asking for a raise three weeks after a round of layoffs puts you on a sticky wicket.
- The minister admitted she was batting on a sticky wicket when the funding figures were challenged live on air.
- It was a sticky wicket for the new coach: a demoralised squad, a short preseason, and an impatient board.