prick
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɹɪk/
ipa: [pʰɹ̠̊ɪk]
rhymes: -ɪk
Forms: form: pricks
form: pricking
form: pricked
form: pricked
Etymology: From Middle English prikken, from Old English prician, priccan (“to prick”), from Proto-Germanic *prikōną, *prikjaną (“to pierce, prick”), of uncertain origin; perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *breyǵ- (“to scrape, scratch, rub, prickle, chap”). Cognate with dialectal English pritch, Dutch prikken (“to prick, sting”), Middle High German pfrecken (“to prick”), Swedish pricka (“to dot, prick”), and possibly to Lithuanian įbrėžti (“to scrape, scratch, carve, inscribe, strike”).
Senses: examples: text: John hardly felt the needle prick his arm when the adept nurse drew blood.
glosses: To pierce or puncture slightly.
topics: farriery
hobbies
horses
lifestyle
pets
sports
glosses: To pierce or puncture slightly.
To drive a nail into (a horse's foot), so as to cause lameness.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1871, Robert Smith Surtees, Jorrocks's jaunts and jollities, page 48:
topics: hobbies
hunting
lifestyle
glosses: To pierce or puncture slightly.
To shoot without killing.
examples: text: to prick holes in paper
text: to prick a pattern for embroidery
text: to prick the notes of a musical composition
text: When, playing with thy vestute's tissued flowers,
The violet, the pink, and jessamine,
I pricked them into paper with a pit
ref: 1782, William Cowper, “On the Receipt of my Mother’s Picture out of Norfolk”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To form by piercing or puncturing.
examples: text: c. 1620, Francis Bacon, letter of advice to Sir George Villiers
Some who are pricked for sheriffs.
text: 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.
ref: 1823, [Walter Scott], “The Enrolment”, in Quentin Durward. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 166:
text: Those many, then, shall die: their names are pricked.
ref: 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
glosses: To mark or denote by a puncture; to designate by pricking; to choose; to mark.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To mark the surface of (something) with pricks or dots; especially, to trace a ship’s course on (a chart).
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To run a middle seam through the cloth of a sail.
examples: text: The cooks [...]prick it [a slice] on a prog of iron.
ref: 1615, George Sandys, “(please specify the page)”, in The Relation of a Iourney Begun An: Dom: 1610. […], London: […] [Richard Field] for W. Barrett, →OCLC:
text: 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
ref: 1704, I[saac] N[ewton], “(please specify |book=1 to 3)”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. […], London: […] Sam[uel] Smith, and Benj[amin] Walford, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To fix by the point; to attach or hang by puncturing.
examples: text: A sore finger pricks.
text: By the pricking of my thumbs, / Something wicked this way comes.
ref: c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
glosses: To be punctured; to suffer or feel a sharp pain, as by puncture.
examples: text: The dog's ears pricked up at the sound of a whistle.
text: The courser [...] pricks up his ears.
ref: 1697, Virgil, “The Second Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
glosses: 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.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2002 July 6, Carol Klein, “Coming up primroses”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening), archived from the original on 15 Feb 2013:
text: 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.
ref: 2005 October 22, Valerie Bourne, “Self-seeding”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening), archived from the original on 24 Nov 2013:
text: 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.
ref: 2015 September 21, Helen Yemm, “How to manage hollyhocks [print version: Hollyhock and elder care, evil weevils, 12 September 2015, page 7]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening), archived from the original on 25 Sep 2015:
topics: agriculture
business
horticulture
lifestyle
glosses: Usually in the form prick out: to plant (seeds or seedlings) in holes made in soil at regular intervals.
examples: text: My duty pricks me on to utter that.
ref: c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii]:
glosses: To incite, stimulate, goad.
examples: text: At last, as through an open plaine they yode,
 They spide a knight that towards them pricked fayre [...].
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
text: 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.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 527-538:
text: Indeed, it is a memorable subject for consideration, with what unconcern and gaiety mankind pricks on along the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
ref: 1874–1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers, London: C[harles] Kegan Paul & Co., […], published 1881, →OCLC:
glosses: To urge one's horse on; to ride quickly.
examples: text: Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 2:37:
text: […] 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: […]
ref: 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Enid”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 93:
text: 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.
ref: 1902 January, John Buchan, “The Outgoing of the Tide”, in The Watcher by the Threshold, and Other Tales, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1902, →OCLC, page 250:
glosses: To affect with sharp pain; to sting, as with remorse.
examples: text: For then their late Attracts decline,
And turn as eager as prick'd Wine
ref: 1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:
glosses: To make acidic or pungent.
glosses: To become sharp or acid; to turn sour, as wine.
examples: text: This prayse belongeth to stronge shootinge and drawinge of mightye bowes, not to prickinge, and nere shootinge.
ref: 1545, Roger Ascham, Toxophilus, the Schole of Shootinge […], London: […] Edouardi Whytchurch, →OCLC:
text: With Broad-arrow, or But, or Prick, or Rouing Shaft, At Markes full fortie score, they vs'd to Prick, and Roue.
ref: 1612, Michael Drayton, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, […], London: […] [Humphrey Lownes] for M[athew] Lownes; I[ohn] Browne; I[ohn] Helme; I[ohn] Busbie, →OCLC:
glosses: To aim at a point or mark.
glosses: to dress or adorn; to prink.
raw_tags: as prick up
Derived terms: word: pricked
word: pricker
word: pricking
word: pricking at the belt
word: prickingly
word: pricking-up
word: prick-me-dainty
word: prick one's ears
word: prick out
word: prick the garter
word: prick up one's ears