[STICK sb.1]
† 1. A piece of white wood used as a tally. Obs.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 233. Lordis many tymes … taken pore mennus goodis & paien not þerfore but white stickis.
c. 1400. Pilgr. Sowle, IV. xxxviii. (1859), 64. The kyng hath nought wherof to paye for his mete, but of white stikkes that no thyng auailen.
2. = WHITE STAFF 1, 2.
1777. Earl March, in Jesse, Selwyn & Contemp. (1844), III. 256. Lord Onslow [as Comptroller of the Household] has Sir W. Meredith’s White Stick.
1792. Wolcot (P. Pindar), Odes of Condol., I. vi. Wks. 1812, III. 86. Then would they ponder on the white-stick row Of Uxbridge, Grey de Wilton, Leeds, and Co.
1812. Byron, Waltz, xii. New white-sticks, gold-sticks, broom-sticks, all new sticks!
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., iii. Lords and ladies in waiting, white sticks or black rods.
