pinprick

plural pinpricks · alternative pin-prick

1. An insignificant puncture made by a pin or similar point.
2. A mildly annoying wound or damage.
3. A very tiny dot.

   The stars were pinpricks of light in a clear night sky.

present singular third person pinpricks · participle present pinpricking · participle past pinpricked · past pinpricked · alternative pin-prick

1. transitiveTo produce a jabbing sensation, like a pinprick, in.

   The water pinpricked her face as she stepped into the shower.

2. transitiveTo puncture with a tiny hole or holes.

   He had always had to repress the urge to pinprick her enthusiasms.

   2017, Fiona Farrell, Decline and Fall on Savage Street, →ISBN, page 164

   1 more example

   By now it was dark, velvety dark with a moon, a darkness pinpricked by the lights from the landing place now drawing rapidly closer.

   1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 144