prick
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: agriculture
business
farriery
hobbies
horses
horticulture
hunting
lifestyle
nautical
pets
sports
transport
Etymology: From Middle English prik, prikke, from Old English prica, pricu (“a sharp point, minute mark, spot, dot, small portion, prick”), from Proto-West Germanic *prikō, *priku, from Proto-Germanic *prikô, *prikō (“a prick, point”), of uncertain origin, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *breyǵ- (“to scrape, scratch, rub, prickle, chap”).
Cognate with West Frisian prik (“small hole”), West Frisian prikke (“penis”), Dutch prik (“point, small stick", also "penis”), Danish prik (“dot”), Icelandic prik (“dot, small stick”).
Inflected forms:
form: pricks
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: pricks
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: pricking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: pricked
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: pricked
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A small hole or perforation, caused by piercing.
pos: noun
gloss: An indentation or small mark made with a pointed object.
pos: noun
gloss: A dot or other diacritical mark used in writing; a point.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
gloss: A tiny particle; a small amount of something; a jot.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
gloss: A small pointed object.
pos: noun
examples: Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary.
It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
gloss: The experience or feeling of being pierced or punctured by a small, sharp object.
pos: noun
examples: I felt a sharp prick as the nurse took a sample of blood.
gloss: A feeling of remorse.
pos: noun
examples: 1768–1777, Abraham Tucker, The Light of Nature Pursued
the pricks of conscience
gloss: The penis.
pos: noun
tags: slang
vulgar
examples: 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.
gloss: Someone (especially a male) who is unpleasant, rude or annoying.
pos: noun
tags: derogatory
slang
gloss: A small roll of yarn or tobacco.
pos: noun
tags: historical
gloss: The footprint of a hare.
pos: noun
gloss: A point or mark on the dial, noting the hour.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
examples: the prick of noon
gloss: The point on a target at which an archer aims; the mark; the pin.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
examples: they that shooten nearest the prick
gloss: To pierce or puncture slightly.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: John hardly felt the needle prick his arm when the adept nurse drew blood.
gloss: To pierce or puncture slightly.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To pierce or puncture slightly.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To form by piercing or puncturing.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: to prick holes in paper
to prick a pattern for embroidery
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
gloss: To mark or denote by a puncture; to designate by pricking; to choose; to mark.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: 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.
Those many, then, shall die: their names are pricked.
gloss: To mark the surface of (something) with pricks or dots; especially, to trace a ship’s course on (a chart).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To run a middle seam through the cloth of a sail.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
gloss: To fix by the point; to attach or hang by puncturing.
pos: verb
examples: The cooks [...]prick it [a slice] on a prog of iron.
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
gloss: To be punctured; to suffer or feel a sharp pain, as by puncture.
pos: verb
tags: dated
intransitive
examples: A sore finger pricks.
By the pricking of my thumbs, / Something wicked this way comes.
gloss: 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.
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
examples: The dog's ears pricked up at the sound of a whistle.
The courser [...] pricks up his ears.
gloss: Usually in the form prick out: to plant (seeds or seedlings) in holes made in soil at regular intervals.
pos: verb
examples: 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.
gloss: To incite, stimulate, goad.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: My duty pricks me on to utter that.
gloss: To urge one's horse on; to ride quickly.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
intransitive
examples: At last, as through an open plaine they yode,
 They spide a knight that towards them pricked fayre [...].
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.
gloss: To affect with sharp pain; to sting, as with remorse.
pos: verb
examples: Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart.
[…] 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.
gloss: To make acidic or pungent.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: For then their late Attracts decline,
And turn as eager as prick'd Wine
gloss: To become sharp or acid; to turn sour, as wine.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
gloss: To aim at a point or mark.
pos: verb
examples: 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.
gloss: to dress or adorn; to prink.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
usually
Derived words: ear prick
fingerprick
gnat's prick
heelprick
like a spare prick at a wedding
pinprick
prick-eared
prickery
pricket
prickette
prickface
prick farrier
prickhead
prickish
prickle
prickless
pricklouse
prickly
prick of perfection
prick post
prick punch
prickpunch
prickshaft
pricksong
prick tease
prickteaser
prick-teaser
prick test
prickwad
prickwood
pricky
superprick
pricked
pricker
pricking
pricking at the belt
prickingly
pricking-up
prick-me-dainty
prick one's ears
prick out
prick the garter
prick up one's ears
Translations:
lang: Albanian
word: ngul
lang: Albanian
word: shpoj
lang: Arabic
word: قْرص
roman: qrəṣ
lang: Bulgarian
word: убождам
roman: uboždam
lang: Bulgarian
word: пробивам
roman: probivam
lang: Dutch
word: prikken
lang: Esperanto
word: piki
lang: Finnish
word: pistää
lang: French
word: piquer
lang: Galician
word: picar
lang: German
word: stechen
lang: Ancient Greek
word: κεντέω
roman: kentéō
lang: Latin
word: pungō
lang: Māori
word: oka
lang: Quechua
word: t'uksiy
lang: Quechua
word: kichkay
lang: Romanian
word: înțepa
lang: Romanian
word: pișca
lang: Romanian
word: ciupi
lang: Romanian
word: împunge
lang: Scottish Gaelic
word: stob
lang: Spanish
word: pinchar
lang: Spanish
word: puyar
lang: Spanish
word: pungir
lang: Spanish
word: empuyar (disused)
lang: Spanish
word: espichar
lang: Thai
word: ทิ่ม
roman: tîm
lang: Urdu
word: چھبنا
roman: chubnā
lang: Walloon
word: piker
lang: Zyphe
word: dong