stickybeak

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   An overly inquisitive person, a nosey parker.

   • I walked back towards the grinning stickybeak who took a few steps backwards before fleeing for the steamy safety of his laundry.
   • Babies of this age are delightful stickybeaks, vitally interested in everything and everyone around them.
   • 1999, Kate Grenville, The Idea of Perfection, 2012, Text Publishing, unnumbered page, And I like a chat, kind of thing. She glanced at Harley. Plus I′m a stickybeak, as you know.
2. 2

   An act of looking at or watching something, especially something which does not directly…

   An act of looking at or watching something, especially something which does not directly concern the one looking.

   • Want me to have a stickybeak at that?
   • Shall we take a stickybeak at that shop?
   • 2009, Australia Justine Vaisutis, Lonely Planet, page 239, It′s worth popping into the bar for a stickybeak.
3. 3

   To pry or snoop.

   • Two of the more arrogant birds actually inspected the inside of the tent, clucking away to each other as they stickybeaked.
   • 2007, Harry Hill, He Was My Father, Rosenberg Publishing, Australia, page 124, When my father had shorn for the Lindleys, I had spent a day at the shed, stickybeaking at everything but making sure I didn′t upset shed activities.
   • I wasn′t stickybeaking or anything, it was at the main bar and your mother mustn′t have realised I was in my usual spot.

The neighborhood