Definition of "stickler"

stickler

/ˈstɪk.lə/

noun
plural sticklers
1. (now only Cornwall) A referee or adjudicator at a fight, wrestling match, duel, etc. who ensures fair play.
  Quotations
  In ancient time they were wont to employ third persons as sticklers, to see no treachery or disorder were used, and to beare witnes of the combates successe.
  1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 27, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […]
  Basilius, the judge, appointed sticklers and trumpets whom the others should obey.
  c. 1580 (date written), Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “[The First Booke] Chapter 1”, in Fulke Greville, Matthew Gwinne, and John Florio, editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590; republished in Albert Feuillerat, editor, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia (Cambridge English Classics: The Complete Works of Sir Philip Sidney; I), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1912, page 105
  Our former chiefs, like sticklers of the war, / First sought to inflame the parties, then to poise.
  1658, John Dryden, Stanza to Oliver Cromwell
2. Someone who insistently advocates for something, especially for strict observance of a formal rule.
  Quotations
  The Tory or High-church were the greatest sticklers against the exorbitant proceedings of King James II.
  1713, Jonathan Swift, A Preface to Bishop Burnet's Introduction