Pronunciations (2)
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/pɹɪk/
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[pʰɹ̠̊ɪk]
Noun
A small hole or perforation, caused by piercing.
An indentation or small mark made with a pointed object.
A dot or other diacritical mark used in writing; a point.
Usage- Obsolete
A tiny particle; a small amount of something; a jot.
Usage- Obsolete
A small pointed object.
- Examples
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Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary.
It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
The experience or feeling of being pierced or punctured by a small, sharp object.
- Examples
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I felt a sharp prick as the nurse took a sample of blood.
A feeling of remorse.
- Examples
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1768–1777, Abraham Tucker, The Light of Nature Pursued the pricks of conscience
The penis.
Usage- Slang
- Vulgar
- Examples
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More examples (1)
Patriarchal attitudes have made a society where men rule and women obey, where "you'd-better-know-your-place-boy," where gay men actually play husband-and-wife (my lover and I did it for four years, until it became intolerable), where king prick lays down the law.
Someone (especially a male) who is unpleasant, rude or annoying.
Usage- Derogatory
- Slang
A small roll of yarn or tobacco.
Usage- Historical
The footprint of a hare.
A point or mark on the dial, noting the hour.
Usage- Obsolete
- Examples
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the prick of noon
The point on a target at which an archer aims; the mark; the pin.
Usage- Obsolete
- Examples
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they that shooten nearest the prick
Verb
To pierce or puncture slightly.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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John hardly felt the needle prick his arm when the adept nurse drew blood.
To pierce or puncture slightly. To drive a nail into (a horse's foot), so as to cause lameness.
Usage- Transitive
To pierce or puncture slightly. To shoot without killing.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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They had shot at old Tom, the hare, too, but he is still alive; at least I pricked him yesterday morn across the path into the turnip field.
To form by piercing or puncturing.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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to prick holes in paper
to prick a pattern for embroidery
More examples (2)
to prick the notes of a musical composition
When, playing with thy vestute's tissued flowers, The violet, the pink, and jessamine, I pricked them into paper with a pit
To mark or denote by a puncture; to designate by pricking; to choose; to mark.
Usage- Obsolete
- Examples
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c. 1620, Francis Bacon, letter of advice to Sir George Villiers Some who are pricked for sheriffs.
And, hark ye—let the soldiers for duty be carefully pricked off; and see that none of them be more or less partakers of your debauch.
More examples (1)
Those many, then, shall die: their names are pricked.
To mark the surface of (something) with pricks or dots; especially, to trace a ship’s course on (a chart).
Usage- Transitive
To run a middle seam through the cloth of a sail.
Usage- Obsolete
To fix by the point; to attach or hang by puncturing.
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The cooks [...]prick it [a slice] on a prog of iron.
More examples (1)
I caused the edges of two knives to be ground truly strait; and pricking their points into a board, so that their edges might look towards one another, and, meeting near their points, contain a rectilinear angle
To be punctured; to suffer or feel a sharp pain, as by puncture.
Usage- Dated
- Intransitive
- Examples
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A sore finger pricks.
By the pricking of my thumbs, / Something wicked this way comes.
To make or become sharp; to erect into a point; to raise, as something pointed; said especially of the ears of an animal, such as a horse or dog; and usually followed by up.
Usage- Transitive or intransitive
- Examples
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The dog's ears pricked up at the sound of a whistle.
The courser [...] pricks up his ears.
Usually in the form prick out: to plant (seeds or seedlings) in holes made in soil at regular intervals.
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More examples (3)
Seed should be sown thinly and evenly to enable seedlings to be pricked out without disturbing those that have just emerged. If there is space, seedlings should be pricked out individually, either into small pots or module trays.
All three germinate well in pots and can be pricked out and potted on with no problems. [...] Grass seeds can be collected as the heads begin to break up. Sow them in late spring, prick out small bundles of seedlings into 7.5cm (3in) pots and transplant them in late May.
Geoff might prefer to "take control": to collect seed and sow it next spring, pricking out a few of the best seedlings, growing them on in pots next summer before planting them out in the autumn.
To incite, stimulate, goad.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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My duty pricks me on to utter that.
To urge one's horse on; to ride quickly.
Usage- Archaic
- Intransitive
- Examples
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At last, as through an open plaine they yode, They spide a knight that towards them pricked fayre [...].
More examples (1)
Part, on the plain or in the air sublime, / Upon the wing or in swift race contend, / As at the Olympian games or Pythian fields; / Part curb their fiery steed, or shun the goal / With rapid wheel, or fronted brigads form : / As when, to warn proud cities, war appears / Waged in the trouble sky, and armies rush / To battle in the clouds; before each van / Prick forth the aery knights, and couch their spears / Till thickest legions close; with feats of arms / From either end of heaven the welkin burns.
Indeed, it is a memorable subject for consideration, with what unconcern and gaiety mankind pricks on along the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
To affect with sharp pain; to sting, as with remorse.
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Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart.
More examples (2)
[…] I was prick'd with some reproof, / As one that let foul wrong stagnate and be, / By having look'd too much thro' alien eyes, / And wrought too long with delegated hands, / Not used mine own: […]
Three days remained till Beltane's Eve, and throughout this time it was noted that Heriotside behaved like one possessed. It may be that his conscience pricked him, or that he had a glimpse of his sin and its coming punishment.
To make acidic or pungent.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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For then their late Attracts decline, And turn as eager as prick'd Wine
To become sharp or acid; to turn sour, as wine.
Usage- Intransitive
To aim at a point or mark.
- Examples
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This prayse belongeth to stronge shootinge and drawinge of mightye bowes, not to prickinge, and nere shootinge.
With Broad-arrow, or But, or Prick, or Rouing Shaft, At Markes full fortie score, they vs'd to Prick, and Roue.
to dress or adorn; to prink.
Usage- Obsolete
- usually
- as prick up
Noun
insulting terms of address for people who are stupid or irritating or ridiculous
- Broader terms
a depression scratched or carved into a surface
- Broader terms
obscene terms for penis
the act of puncturing with a small point
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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he gave the balloon a small prick
Verb
make a small hole into, as with a needle or a thorn
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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The nurse pricked my finger to get a small blood sample
cause a stinging pain
- Examples
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The needle pricked his skin
to stick up
- Examples
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The dog pricked up his ears
stab or urge on as if with a pointed stick
- Synonyms
cause a prickling sensation
- Synonyms
to cause a sharp emotional pain
- Examples
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The thought of her unhappiness pricked his conscience
deliver a sting to
- Broader terms
- Examples
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A bee stung my arm yesterday