means Tending to adhere, cling, or hold fast to surfaces — or by extension, awkwardly difficult to escape, as in a sticky situation.

from From 'stick,' the Old English 'stician,' meaning to pierce, stab, or remain fixed in place — a verb with Germanic cousins (compare Dutch 'steken,' German 'stechen'). The same root gives us the thorn that 'sticks' in your skin and the twig you call a 'stick.' The '-y' suffix turns the verb into a quality, so 'sticky' is literally the state of being prone to staying put. The figurative sense — a sticky problem, a sticky end — grew naturally from the image of something you simply cannot peel yourself away from.