What's the difference between sticky and tacky?

Sticky


Definition:

  • (superl.) Having the quality of sticking to a surface; adhesive; gluey; viscous; viscid; glutinous; tenacious.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The texture of a food item can be distinguished in hardness, toughness, stickiness, juiciness and chewability.
  • (2) The outstanding advantages in microsurgery are as follows: (1) After moderate hemodilution had been performed, blood stickiness was so reduced that the resistance of blood stream was decreased.
  • (3) Most of the drugs tested were designed to target the accumulation of sticky plaques, called beta-amyloids.
  • (4) Among junior high school students the results suggested that consciousness about and interest in such factors as gingival bleeding, bad breath and sticky feeling in the mouth caused better dental health behavior.
  • (5) In addition, the co-aligned configuration of the ends of the sex-chromosome axes of this species and the lack of silver-stainable threads or filaments connecting them suggest the existence of two mechanisms for association of the sex chromosomes during prophase I and metaphase I: attachment of the ends of both sex chromosome axes to the nuclear envelope and heterochromatin "stickiness."
  • (6) The most relevant factors causing these differences were: saltiness, fluor flavor, stickiness, dryness, and uniformity of color.
  • (7) The onions are easy to store and to handle, and the root tip cells constitute a convenient system for macroscopic (growth, EC50 values) as well as for microscopic parameters (c-mitosis, stickiness, chromosome breaks).
  • (8) For primary explorers, build habitats out of cardboard with sticky tape and get them to decorate their designs.
  • (9) I like your advice about having a sticky note on the phone, saying: "Lunches are better for me."
  • (10) Remnants of the highly viscous and sticky contrast medium that remain attached to the vascular wall complicate the technical procedure of anastomosing.
  • (11) Illustration: Virtual Design Agency As the original sketches were made from sticky tape, the corners of the letters in the final design are missing.
  • (12) Kazimierz Karasinski has been honorary consul of the UK in Krakow for 16 years, helping British citizens in sticky situations.
  • (13) This station, with its quarter-mile, 300kph trains, a huge cocktail bar, a branch of Foyles stocked with 20,000 titles, a smart Searcy's restaurant and brasserie, independent coffee bars, floors covered in timber and stone rather than sticky British airport-style carpet, new gothic carvings, newly cast gothic door handles, and a nine-metre-high sculpture of lovers meeting under the station clock?
  • (14) I couldn't handle the hangovers: waking up in the sticky filth of the Colony Room on the floor; sweating my way though meetings at White Cube; going to meet Larry [Gagosian] on the Anadin, the Nurofen, the Berocca and the Vicks nasal spray, looking like an alcoholic tramp.
  • (15) Now he has tipped the prime minister and the chancellor into the sticky stuff.
  • (16) She says it began as a "defence mechanism" – "it gets you out of so many sticky situations" – but it has now become the means by which Delevingne communicates her sense of fun, in a world where most models seem to adopt a bored, peevish expression of someone queuing to return a faulty toaster in Argos.
  • (17) This "sticky" interpersonal style may be particularly common in TLE patients with a left sided temporal lobe seizure focus.
  • (18) But in and among the general approval, there was the odd titter that such a well-established prize should find itself being backed by a purveyor of sticky drinks.
  • (19) Macroscopic examination of the 97 explanted prostheses provided information on their integrity (38.1% of prostheses ruptured), gel differentiation (24.7%), sticky surfaces (26.8%), surface deposits (33%), memory folds (54.6%), and Dacron fixation patches (20.6%).
  • (20) It has been shown that sulfinpyrazone is able to interfere with the dynamic interaction between sticky Walker-256-carcinosarcoma cells and the vascular endothelium.

Tacky


Definition:

  • (a.) Sticky; adhesive; raw; -- said of paint, varnish, etc., when not well dried.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But to be described as "tacky" is another thing entirely.
  • (2) The samples were periodically withdrawn for examination of yellowing and tackiness.
  • (3) He says they talk about "the love, life and losses of [Real Housewives Of Atlanta star] NeNe Leakes," and that they're "designing the merchandise for the next season of [equally tacky reality show] Bad Girls Club: Evian bottles replaced with leopard print covers to conceal the brand on TV.
  • (4) It ultimately led to his re-capture on Friday in a tacky hotel in Los Mochis, a town of tomato growers on the Pacific Coast.
  • (5) The five-year-old isn’t troubled that it might make her look tacky.
  • (6) Practical application is hampered by inherent characteristics of elastomers, i.e., high tackiness and highly hydrophobic surface properties.
  • (7) Most of the outfits he describes as "tacky" and features in his video look to me like those ones praised by fashion magazines.
  • (8) He's right, these aren't just modern irritants, they're downright tacky.
  • (9) 22 min "All this possession and ticky-tacky passing," says Sean Boiling.
  • (10) We might have thought that that was going to be the nadir of this teeth-grindingly tacky week, but then West Australian talk radio host and alleged adult Howard Sattler demonstrated that our concepts of “bottom of the barrel” were wildly optimistic.
  • (11) Abbott, the Liberal leader, said the menu was "tacky and scatological" but confirmed that Brough's candidacy was safe.
  • (12) Cameron Joseph (@cam_joseph) Donald Trump on Iraq's oil reserve: "I say we should take it and pay ourselves back" #CPAC March 15, 2013 12.52pm GMT "That's the problem with the country," Trump says after detailing how the White House wouldn't let him build one of his tacky black-and-gold-paneled ballrooms on their back lawn.
  • (13) Lidl will forever be associated for me with that illicit drink in its tacky rouge bottle.
  • (14) But what I especially enjoy about Weird Al's song is the way he deems tacky certain aspects of modern life that are now so common they can pass almost unseen: people Instagramming every meal (an "unfollow" offence if ever there was one); people who keep old liquor bottles in a pointless attempt to create a kind of speakeasy vibe; live-tweeting private occasions, and so on.
  • (15) They’ve taken something fine and beautiful and replaced it with something tacky and characterless and guess what?
  • (16) A woman who wears Versace fancies herself quite the molto molto sexy mama, with a dash of 80s tackiness thrown in.
  • (17) I had been trapped in the politically correct negative view of the relay, the view that the cult of the torch was an invented tradition foisted on the Olympics by the Nazis in 1936 and that the 2012 relay was a tacky stunt for drumming up phoney enthusiasm for the London Games from an otherwise indifferent public.
  • (18) As Shona says, certain styles and habits are described as "tacky" by Yankovic in this song, and I don't think many will disagree: Ed Hardy shirts, glitter Uggs, pink sequin Crocs.
  • (19) And you will not find Richard Branson pushing a trolley down the aisle for some tacky publicity stunt.
  • (20) Spinability, pourability, adhesiveness and tackiness are starting to be recognised as physical properties of RTS and its is likely that they may be relevant in the pathogenesis of airways obstruction.