cattle prod

plural cattle prods · alternative cattle-prod · alternative cattleprod

1. A stick designed to goad cows, steers, and similar animals in order to prompt them to move in a desired direction, now usually electrified to administer a stimulating shock to the animal.
2. figurativelySomething used to goad or push someone to act.

   Social media is only as virtuous as the people using it. With Donald J. Trump in office, using Twitter as a cattle prod to shock the country to attention multiple times a day — often over cultural topics like N.F.L. protests or “Roseanne” — there was a sense that every day on the site was a battle.

   2023 July 10, James Poniewozik, “The Twitter Watch Party Is Over”, in The New York Times

present singular third person cattle prods · participle present cattle prodding · participle past cattle prodded · past cattle prodded · alternative cattle-prod · alternative cattleprod

1. figurativelytransitiveTo goad or push someone to act.

   (They cattle prodded people trying to get them to move, but to no avail.)

   1 more example

   (The website locks streams at highest resolution to cattle prod users to pay higher bandwidth fees.)