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German
Etymology
From Middle High German stecken, from Old High German steckōn, a geminated derivative of stehhan, whence modern stechen.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈʃtɛkən/, ,
- Hyphenation: ste‧cken
- Hyphenation: stek‧ken (pre-1996)
Verb
stecken (weak or irregular strong, third-person singular present steckt, past tense steckte or (archaic) stak, past participle gesteckt, past subjunctive steckte or (archaic) stäke, auxiliary haben)
- (transitive) to stick; to put; to insert; to pin
- (intransitive) to stick; to be stuck
Die Katze steckt im Baum.- The cat is stuck in the tree.
- in Schwierigkeiten stecken ― to be in trouble (literally, “to be stuck in difficulty”)
1930–1943, Robert Musil, “Der Ausschuß zur Fassung eines leitenden Beschlusses in bezug auf das Siebzigjährige Regierungsjubiläum Sr. Majestät beginnt zu tagen.”, in Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften [The Man Without Qualities], book 1, Hamburg: Rowohlt Verlag, published 1957:Unzählige Erinnerungen an Erlebnisse, Myriaden einander kreuzender Schwingungen des Geistes waren in diesen Köpfen versammelt, die wie die Nadeln eines Teppichwirkers in einem Gewebe staken, das sich rings um sie, vor ihnen und nach ihnen ohne Naht und Rand ausbreitete, und sie wirkten an irgendeiner Stelle ein Muster, das sich ähnlich anderswo wiederholte und doch ein wenig verschieden war.- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- (intransitive, informal) to be hiding (by location or causally behind something)
- Er wusste nicht, wo seine Katze wieder steckt. ― He didn’t know where his cat is again.
Nur seine Eltern und zwei gute Freunde wissen, dass er hinter dem Auftritt steckt.- Only his parents and two good friends know he is hiding behind the site.
- Kartelle stecken hinter den hohen Preisen bei Matratzen. ― Cartels are behind the high prices in matresses.
- (ditransitive, informal) to inform privily, to intimate
- Synonyms: zustecken, mitteilen
Usage notes
- Transitively, stecken has always been a weak verb.
- Intransitively, the past participle has also always been weak (gesteckt). The (secondarily developed) strong past tense forms were still used in formal writing until some time ago, but have now become archaic and even unintelligible to a good deal of native speakers. Hence, stecken is now a consistently weak verb in general usage.
Conjugation
1Archaic.
2Rare except in very formal contexts; alternative in würde normally preferred.
Derived terms
Related terms
Further reading
- “stecken” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
- “stecken” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
- “stecken” in Duden online
- “stecken” in OpenThesaurus.de