stickybeak

plural stickybeaks

1. CommonwealthcolloquialAn overly inquisitive person, a nosey parker.

   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.

   3 more examples

   I walked back towards the grinning stickybeak who took a few steps backwards before fleeing for the steamy safety of his laundry.

   1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber, published 2003, page 109

   Babies of this age are delightful stickybeaks, vitally interested in everything and everyone around them.

   1994, Robin Barker, Baby Love, Pan Macmillan Australia, published 2009, page 419

   Vanessa took hold of his hand. ‘She′s a dear friend as well as my business manager and,’ she giggled as she admitted her agent′s greatest flaw, ‘when it comes to her clients, the world′s biggest stickybeak.’

   2004, Lynne Wilding, Outback Sunset, published 2010, unnumbered page

   Synonyms: nosey parker, snoop

2. CommonwealthcolloquialAn 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?

   5 more examples

   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.

   Between properties, we stopped off for tea with my grandmother and my aunt, and my mother produced her stash of floor plans like enemy intelligence: ‘Have a stickybeak at this!’

   2009, Anna Goldsworthy, Piano Lessons, published 2011, page 109

   God knows what the other patients and staff made of a mob of blackfellas rocking up to visit one of our own, in a private room, to have a stickybeak at the new bub.

   2010, Kate Howarth, Ten Hail Marys, page 4

   When I patted the pockets of them shorts there wasn't any phone. "It's in here on the table," said the Irishman. "And you had a good stickybeak I bet."

   2018, Tim Winton, The Shepherd's Hut, Picador UK Paperback edition 2018, p.146

   Synonyms: look-see, quick peek

present singular third person stickybeaks · participle present stickybeaking · participle past stickybeaked · past stickybeaked

1. CommonwealthintransitiveTo pry or snoop.

   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.

   2 more examples

   Two of the more arrogant birds actually inspected the inside of the tent, clucking away to each other as they stickybeaked.

   2007, Kevin Hallewell, Woop Woop, page 104

   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.

   2009, Bryce Courtenay, The Story of Danny Dunn, volume 1, ReadHowYouWant, published 2011, 2, page 202