Prick

Prick Prick, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Pricked}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Pricking}.] [AS. prician; akin to LG. pricken, D. prikken, Dan. prikke, Sw. pricka. See {Prick}, n., and cf. {Prink}, {Prig}.] 1. To pierce slightly with a sharp-pointed instrument or substance; to make a puncture in, or to make by puncturing; to drive a fine point into; as, to prick one with a pin, needle, etc.; to prick a card; to prick holes in paper. [1913 Webster]

2. To fix by the point; to attach or hang by puncturing; as, to prick a knife into a board. --Sir I. Newton. [1913 Webster]

The cooks prick it [a slice] on a prong of iron. --Sandys. [1913 Webster]

3. To mark or denote by a puncture; to designate by pricking; to choose; to mark; -- sometimes with off. [1913 Webster]

Some who are pricked for sheriffs. --Bacon. [1913 Webster]

Let the soldiers for duty be carefully pricked off. --Sir W. Scott. [1913 Webster]

Those many, then, shall die: their names are pricked. --Shak. [1913 Webster]

4. To mark the outline of by puncturing; to trace or form by pricking; to mark by punctured dots; as, to prick a pattern for embroidery; to prick the notes of a musical composition. --Cowper. [1913 Webster]

5. To ride or guide with spurs; to spur; to goad; to incite; to urge on; -- sometimes with on, or off. [1913 Webster]

Who pricketh his blind horse over the fallows. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]

The season pricketh every gentle heart. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]

My duty pricks me on to utter that. --Shak. [1913 Webster]

6. To affect with sharp pain; to sting, as with remorse. ``I was pricked with some reproof.'' --Tennyson. [1913 Webster]

Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart. --Acts ii. 37. [1913 Webster]

7. To make sharp; to erect into a point; to raise, as something pointed; -- said especially of the ears of an animal, as a horse or dog; and usually followed by up; -- hence, to prick up the ears, to listen sharply; to have the attention and interest strongly engaged. ``The courser . . . pricks up his ears.'' --Dryden. [1913 Webster]

8. To render acid or pungent. [Obs.] --Hudibras. [1913 Webster]

9. To dress; to prink; -- usually with up. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]

10. (Naut) (a) To run a middle seam through, as the cloth of a sail. (b) To trace on a chart, as a ship's course. [1913 Webster]

11. (Far.) (a) To drive a nail into (a horse's foot), so as to cause lameness. (b) To nick. [1913 Webster]