stick shift

noun

: a manually operated gearshift for a motor vehicle usually mounted on the floor

Examples of stick shift in a Sentence

Do you know how to drive a stick shift?
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
The first time Caldwell tried to teach Cordell how to drive a stick shift, she got frustrated with him. Lillie Davidson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 30 July 2025 This hardcore sport sedan, with a boisterous engine and a manual transmission, simply seems out of place in an era when sedans, big gasoline engines and stick shifts are all going extinct at an alarming rate. Michael Teo Van Runkle, Forbes.com, 30 July 2025 Many of us are familiar with the cute English MG Drophead Coupes (roadsters) with their four-cylinder engines and stick shifts. David Krumboltz, The Mercury News, 16 Mar. 2025 Then again, maybe an Emira with a stick shift and AMG turbo-four would just be too perfect of a car, in this liminal tail end of the internal-combustion era. Michael Teo Van Runkle, Forbes, 19 Dec. 2024 See All Example Sentences for stick shift

Word History

First Known Use

1959, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of stick shift was in 1959

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Stick shift.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stick%20shift. Accessed 20 Aug. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!