prick

plural pricks

1. A small hole or perforation, caused by piercing.First known use 10th c.
2. An indentation or small mark made with a pointed object.First known use 10th c.
3. obsoleteA dot or other diacritical mark used in writing; a point.First known use 10th–18th c.
4. obsoleteA tiny particle; a small amount of something; a jot.First known use 10th–18th c.
5. A small pointed object.First known use 10th c.

   Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary.

   c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]

   1 more example

   It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 9:5

6. The experience or feeling of being pierced or punctured by a small, sharp object.First known use 13th c.

   I felt a sharp prick as the nurse took a sample of blood.

7. A feeling of remorse.

   1768–1777, Abraham Tucker, The Light of Nature Pursued the pricks of conscience

8. slangvulgarThe penis.First known use 16th c.

   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.

   1977 December 10, Arnold W. Klassen, “Looking For Alternatives: A New Political Analysis”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 23, page 13

9. derogatoryslangSomeone (especially a male) who is unpleasant, rude or annoying.First known use 16th c.

   Synonyms: assbag, assbreath, assbucket, asschunk, asscunt, assface, assfag, assfaggot

10. historicalA small roll of yarn or tobacco.First known use 17th c.
11. The footprint of a hare.
12. obsoleteA point or mark on the dial, noting the hour.

    the prick of noon

    c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]

13. obsoleteThe point on a target at which an archer aims; the mark; the pin.

    they that shooten nearest the prick

    1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “September. Ægloga Nona.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC

present singular third person pricks · participle present pricking · participle past pricked · past pricked

1. transitiveTo pierce or puncture slightly.First known use 11th c.

   John hardly felt the needle prick his arm when the adept nurse drew blood.

   1. transitivefarrieryTo drive a nail into (a horse's foot), so as to cause lameness.
   2. transitivehobbiesTo shoot without killing.

      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.

      1871, Robert Smith Surtees, Jorrocks's jaunts and jollities, page 48

2. transitiveTo form by piercing or puncturing.

   to prick holes in paper

   3 more examples

   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

   1782, William Cowper, “On the Receipt of my Mother’s Picture out of Norfolk”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC

3. obsoleteTo mark or denote by a puncture; to designate by pricking; to choose; to mark.

   c. 1620, Francis Bacon, letter of advice to Sir George Villiers Some who are pricked for sheriffs.

   2 more examples

   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.

   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

   Those many, then, shall die: their names are pricked.

   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]

4. transitivenauticalTo mark the surface of (something) with pricks or dots; especially, to trace a ship’s course on (a chart).First known use 16th c.
5. obsoletenauticalTo run a middle seam through the cloth of a sail.
6. To fix by the point; to attach or hang by puncturing.

   The cooks [...]prick it [a slice] on a prog of iron.

   1615, George Sandys, “(please specify the page)”, in The Relation of a Iourney Begun An: Dom: 1610. […], London: […] [Richard Field] for W. Barrett, →OCLC

   1 more example

   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

   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

7. datedintransitiveTo be punctured; to suffer or feel a sharp pain, as by puncture.

   A sore finger pricks.

   1 more example

   By the pricking of my thumbs, / Something wicked this way comes.

   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]

8. ambitransitiveTo 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.

   The dog's ears pricked up at the sound of a whistle.

   1 more example

   The courser [...] pricks up his ears.

   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

9. agricultureUsually in the form prick out: to plant (seeds or seedlings) in holes made in soil at regular intervals.

   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.

   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

   2 more 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.

   2002 July 6, Carol Klein, “Coming up primroses”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening), archived from the original on 15 Feb 2013

   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.

   2005 October 22, Valerie Bourne, “Self-seeding”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening), archived from the original on 24 Nov 2013

10. transitiveTo incite, stimulate, goad.First known use 13th c.

    My duty pricks me on to utter that.

    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]

11. archaicintransitiveTo urge one's horse on; to ride quickly.First known use 14th c.

    At last, as through an open plaine they yode, They spide a knight that towards them pricked fayre [...].

    1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

    2 more examples

    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.

    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

    Indeed, it is a memorable subject for consideration, with what unconcern and gaiety mankind pricks on along the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

    1874–1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers, London: C[harles] Kegan Paul & Co., […], published 1881, →OCLC

12. To affect with sharp pain; to sting, as with remorse.

    Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart.

    1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 2:37

    2 more examples

    […] 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: […]

    1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Enid”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 93

    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.

    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

13. transitiveTo make acidic or pungent.

    For then their late Attracts decline, And turn as eager as prick'd Wine

    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

14. intransitiveTo become sharp or acid; to turn sour, as wine.
15. To aim at a point or mark.

    This prayse belongeth to stronge shootinge and drawinge of mightye bowes, not to prickinge, and nere shootinge.

    1545, Roger Ascham, Toxophilus, the Schole of Shootinge […], London: […] Edouardi Whytchurch, →OCLC

    1 more example

    With Broad-arrow, or But, or Prick, or Rouing Shaft, At Markes full fortie score, they vs'd to Prick, and Roue.

    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

16. obsoleteusuallyto dress or adorn; to prink.