GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English
last match results
Found 3 definitions
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Prick (?), n. [AS. prica, pricca, pricu; akin to LG. prick, pricke, D. prik, Dan. prik, prikke, Sw. prick. Cf. Prick, v.]
1. That which pricks, penetrates, or punctures; a sharp and slender thing; a pointed instrument; a goad; a spur, etc.; a point; a skewer.
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Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary. Shak.
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It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. Acts ix. 5.
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2. The act of pricking, or the sensation of being pricked; a sharp, stinging pain; figuratively, remorse. “The pricks of conscience.” A. Tucker.
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3. A mark made by a pointed instrument; a puncture; a point. Hence: (a) A point or mark on the dial, noting the hour. [Obs.] “The prick of noon.” Shak. (b) The point on a target at which an archer aims; the mark; the pin. “They that shooten nearest the prick.” Spenser. (c) A mark denoting degree; degree; pitch. [Obs.] “To prick of highest praise forth to advance.” Spenser. (d) A mathematical point; -- regularly used in old English translations of Euclid. (e) The footprint of a hare. [Obs.]
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4. (Naut.) A small roll; as, “a prick of spun yarn; a prick of tobacco.”
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Prick (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Pricked (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Pricking.] [AS. prician; akin to LG. pricken, D. prikken, Dan. prikke, Sw. pricka. See Prick, n., and cf. Prink, Prig.]
1. To pierce slightly with a sharp-pointed instrument or substance; to make a puncture in, or to make by puncturing; to drive a fine point into; as, “to prick one with a pin, needle, etc.; to prick a card; to prick holes in paper.”
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2. To fix by the point; to attach or hang by puncturing; as, “to prick a knife into a board”. Sir I. Newton.
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The cooks prick it [a slice] on a prong of iron. Sandys.
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3. To mark or denote by a puncture; to designate by pricking; to choose; to mark; -- sometimes with off.
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Some who are pricked for sheriffs. Bacon.
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Let the soldiers for duty be carefully pricked off. Sir W. Scott.
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Those many, then, shall die: their names are pricked. Shak.
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4. To mark the outline of by puncturing; to trace or form by pricking; to mark by punctured dots; as, “to prick a pattern for embroidery; to prick the notes of a musical composition.” Cowper.
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5. To ride or guide with spurs; to spur; to goad; to incite; to urge on; -- sometimes with on, or off.
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Who pricketh his blind horse over the fallows. Chaucer.
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The season pricketh every gentle heart. Chaucer.
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My duty pricks me on to utter that. Shak.
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6. To affect with sharp pain; to sting, as with remorse. “I was pricked with some reproof.” Tennyson.
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Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart. Acts ii. 37.
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7. To make sharp; to erect into a point; to raise, as something pointed; -- said especially of the ears of an animal, as a horse or dog; and usually followed by up; -- hence, to prick up the ears, to listen sharply; to have the attention and interest strongly engaged. “The courser . . . pricks up his ears.” Dryden.
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8. To render acid or pungent. [Obs.] Hudibras.
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9. To dress; to prink; -- usually with up. [Obs.]
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10. (Naut) (a) To run a middle seam through, as the cloth of a sail. (b) To trace on a chart, as a ship's course.
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11. (Far.) (a) To drive a nail into (a horse's foot), so as to cause lameness. (b) To nick.
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Prick, v. i.
1. To be punctured; to suffer or feel a sharp pain, as by puncture; as, “a sore finger pricks”.
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2. To spur onward; to ride on horseback. Milton.
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A gentle knight was pricking on the plain. Spenser.
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3. To become sharp or acid; to turn sour, as wine.
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4. To aim at a point or mark. Hawkins.
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