the sticks

the sticks

The rural countryside, especially in a rustic or particularly unsophisticated area. Jane was sick of living in the sticks and dreamed of spending her life in New York City. What, are you embarrassed by your family from the sticks coming up to the big city to visit?
See also: stick
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

stick

1. n. a baseball bat. (Baseball.) He holds the stick up higher than most batters.
2. n. a pool cue. He drew the stick back slowly, sighted again, and gave the cue ball a sharp knock.
3. n. a golf club. These aren’t my sticks, and you aren’t my caddy. What’s going on around here?
4. n. the lever that controls the horizontal and vertical surfaces of the tail of an aircraft. The pilot pulled back on the stick, and the plane did nothing—being that he hadn’t even started the engine or anything. You pull back on the stick, which lowers the tail and raises the nose, and up you go.
5. n. a gearshift lever in a car. (see also stick shift.) I keep reaching for the stick in a car with automatic.
6. n. a drunkard. (Possibly from dipstick, shitstick, or swizzle-stick.) Get that stick out of here before he makes a mess.
7. n. a person’s legs. (Always plural.) He’s got good sticks under him, but he won’t use them.
8. and the sticks n. a rural or backwoods area. (Always with the in this sense and always plural.) You hear a lot about how things are in the sticks. They’re worse.

the sticks

verb
See stick
See also: stick
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

stick

to/by one's guns
To hold fast to an opinion or a set course of action.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
See also:
  • stick
  • in the sticks
  • honyock
  • just fell off the turnip truck
  • fall off the cabbage truck
  • fall off the turnip truck
  • turnip
  • God's country
  • hayseed
  • cornbread
References in classic literature
The crowd, of course, first cheer, and then chaff as usual, as he picks up his hat and begins handling the sticks to see which will suit him.
Tom Browns Schooldays
"I must put the blood of the lamb on the head of the boy," Jesse muttered when the sticks had begun to blaze greedily, and taking a long knife from his pocket he turned and walked rapidly across the clearing toward David.
Winesberg Ohio
Each now brought a quantity of mud, with which he would plaster the sticks and bushes just deposited.
Adventures of Captain Bonneville USA in the Rocky Mountains and
The sticks were jerked out of her, deckhouses splintered to match-wood, rails ripped off, and, after the worst had passed, the covering boards began to go.
The Red One
The old man was transfigured as he reached avidly for the stick and received it.
Michael Brother of Jerry
I stood upon the hearth-rug and picked up the stick which our visitor had left behind him the night before.
The Hound of the Baskervilles
The emperor holds a stick in his hands, both ends parallel to the horizon, while the candidates advancing, one by one, sometimes leap over the stick, sometimes creep under it, backward and forward, several times, according as the stick is advanced or depressed.
Gullivers Travels
"What say you to this, good old man, you with the stick?" said Sancho.
Don Quixote
Before I could divine his plan, he was back at the entrance and savagely jabbing the stick in at us.
Before Adam
The other end of the stick, in turn, was made fast to a stake in the ground by means of a leather thong.
White Fang
To take care, in doing this, that one end of the stick shall be at the edge of the rocks, on the side of them which overlooks the quicksand.
The Moonstone
"'Whosoever takes up the stick will be thrashed by the stick.'"
The Black Tulip
For many days, tied by the stick, Jerry remained Lamai's prisoner.
Jerry of the Islands
She threatened with the stick, and the dog's growling became ferocious.
The Valley of the Moon
"Take the stick" were the first words she said to me.
Law and the Lady