prick

Noun

prick (plural pricks)

1. A small hole or perforation, caused by piercing. [from 10th c.]
2. An indentation or small mark made with a pointed object. [from 10th c.]
3. (obsolete) A dot or other diacritical mark used in writing; a point. [10th–18th c.]
4. (obsolete) A tiny particle; a small amount of something; a jot. [10th–18th c.]
5. A small pointed object. [from 10th c.]
   • 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]:

     Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary.

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

     It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

6. The experience or feeling of being pierced or punctured by a small, sharp object. [from 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. (slang, vulgar) The penis. [from 16th c.]
   • 1977 December 10, Arnold W. Klassen, “Looking For Alternatives: A New Political Analysis”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 23, page 13:

     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.

9. (slang, derogatory) Someone (especially a man or boy) who is unpleasant, rude or annoying. [from 16th c.]
10. (now historical) A small roll of yarn or tobacco. [from 17th c.]
11. The footprint of a hare.
12. (obsolete) A point or mark on the dial, noting the hour.
    • 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]:

      the prick of noon

13. (obsolete) The point on a target at which an archer aims; the mark; the pin.
    • 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “September. Ægloga Nona.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC:

      they that shooten nearest the prick

Verb

prick (third-person singular simple present pricks, present participle pricking, simple past and past participle pricked)

1. (transitive) To pierce or puncture slightly. [from 11th c.]

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

   1. (farriery) To drive a nail into (a horse's foot), so as to cause lameness.
   2. (transitive, hunting) To shoot without killing.
      • 1871, Robert Smith Surtees, Jorrocks's jaunts and jollities, page 48:

        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.

2. (transitive) To form by piercing or puncturing.

   to prick holes in paper

   to prick a pattern for embroidery

   to prick the notes of a musical composition

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

     When, playing with thy vestute's tissued flowers,
     The violet, the pink, and jessamine,
     I pricked them into paper with a pit

3. (obsolete) To 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.

   • 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:

     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.

   • 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]:

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

4. (transitive, chiefly nautical) To mark the surface of (something) with pricks or dots; especially, to trace a ship’s course on (a chart). [from 16th c.]
5. (nautical, obsolete) To run a middle seam through the cloth of a sail.
6. To fix by the point; to attach or hang by puncturing.
   • 1615, George Sandys, “(please specify the page)”, in The Relation of a Iourney Begun An: Dom: 1610. […], London: […] [Richard Field] for W. Barrett, →OCLC:

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

   • 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:

     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

7. (intransitive, dated) To be punctured; to suffer or feel a sharp pain, as by puncture.

   A sore finger pricks.

   • 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]:

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

8. (transitive, intransitive) 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.

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

   • 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:

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

9. (horticulture) Usually in the form prick out: to plant (seeds or seedlings) in holes made in soil at regular intervals.
   • 2002 July 6, Carol Klein, “Coming up primroses”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening)‎, archived from the original on 15 February 2013:

     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.

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

   • 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 September 2015:

     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.

10. (transitive) To incite, stimulate, goad. [from 13th c.]
    • 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]:

      My duty pricks me on to utter that.

11. (intransitive, archaic) To urge one's horse on; to ride quickly. [from 14th c.]
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

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

    • 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:

      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.

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

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

12. To affect with sharp pain; to sting, as with remorse.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 2:37:

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

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

      […] 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: […]

    • 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:

      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.

13. (transitive) To make acidic or pungent.
    • 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:

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

14. (intransitive) To become sharp or acid; to turn sour, as wine.
15. To aim at a point or mark.
    • 1544 (date written; published 1571), Roger Ascham, Toxophilus, the Schole, or Partitions, of Shooting. […], London: […] Thomas Marshe, →OCLC; republished in The English Works of Roger Ascham, […], London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley, […], and J[ohn] Newbery, […], 1761, →OCLC:

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

    • 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:

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

16. (obsolete, usually as prick up) to dress or adorn; to prink.

Usage notes

• (guy, person): Mainly used in conjunction with the adjectives rolig (“funny”) or trevlig (“nice”), but also with ruskig (“frightful, nasty”).
• See also på pricken.

Declension

Derived terms

Related terms

• pricka
• prickig

See also

• sjömärke