sticky wickets
Awkward spots, informally
Sticky wickets is the plural of sticky wicket, a cricket term for a pitch that has become damp and difficult to play on after rain.
The phrase has moved well beyond cricket into general usage, where a sticky wicket means an awkward, tricky, or delicate situation that's hard to navigate.
We found ourselves on a sticky wicket when both candidates demanded our endorsement.
The expression is more common in British English but understood broadly.
- cricketChirping legged insect
- test matchEvaluative competitive event
- spinRapid rotation around axis
- Catch-22Self-defeating logical trap
- predicamentDifficult, unpleasant situation
no man's land · tough spot · hard place · slip · ball · pitch · quandary · impasse · challenge · damp · fielding · problems · dilemma · soggy · uncertainty · uphill battle · fine line · puzzle
sticky wicketssmooth sailing
Untroubled progress forward
easy street · plain sailing · cakewalk · breeze · piece of cake
sticky wicketsdone deal
Finalized, irreversible agreement
cut and dried · no-brainer · slam dunk · sure thing · foregone conclusion
sticky, wicket, stick, sticks, stickier, stickiest, stickiness, sticking, stuck