Prick \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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Pricking \Prick"ing\, n.
1. The act of piercing or puncturing with a sharp point.
"There is that speaketh like the prickings of a sword."
--Prov. xii. 18 [1583].
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2. (Far.)
(a) The driving of a nail into a horse's foot so as to
produce lameness.
(b) Same as Nicking.
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3. A sensation of being pricked. --Shak.
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4. The mark or trace left by a hare's foot; a prick; also,
the act of tracing a hare by its footmarks. [Obs.]
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5. Dressing one's self for show; prinking. [Obs.]
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