pricking

pricking
    n 1: the act of puncturing with a small point; "he gave the
         balloon a small prick" [syn: {prick}, {pricking}]
    

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.
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   2. To fix by the point; to attach or hang by puncturing; as,
      to prick a knife into a board. --Sir I. Newton.
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            The cooks prick it [a slice] on a prong of iron.
                                                  --Sandys.
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   3. To mark or denote by a puncture; to designate by pricking;
      to choose; to mark; -- sometimes with off.
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            Some who are pricked for sheriffs.    --Bacon.
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            Let the soldiers for duty be carefully pricked off.
                                                  --Sir W.
                                                  Scott.
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            Those many, then, shall die: their names are
            pricked.                              --Shak.
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   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.
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   5. To ride or guide with spurs; to spur; to goad; to incite;
      to urge on; -- sometimes with on, or off.
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            Who pricketh his blind horse over the fallows.
                                                  --Chaucer.
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            The season pricketh every gentle heart. --Chaucer.
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            My duty pricks me on to utter that.   --Shak.
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   6. To affect with sharp pain; to sting, as with remorse. "I
      was pricked with some reproof." --Tennyson.
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            Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their
            heart.                                --Acts ii. 37.
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   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.
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   8. To render acid or pungent. [Obs.] --Hudibras.
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   9. To dress; to prink; -- usually with up. [Obs.]
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   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.
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   11. (Far.)
       (a) To drive a nail into (a horse's foot), so as to cause
           lameness.
       (b) To nick.
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Pricking \Prick"ing\, n.
   1. The act of piercing or puncturing with a sharp point.
      "There is that speaketh like the prickings of a sword."
      --Prov. xii. 18 [1583].
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   2. (Far.)
      (a) The driving of a nail into a horse's foot so as to
          produce lameness.
      (b) Same as {Nicking}.
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   3. A sensation of being pricked. --Shak.
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   4. The mark or trace left by a hare's foot; a prick; also,
      the act of tracing a hare by its footmarks. [Obs.]
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   5. Dressing one's self for show; prinking. [Obs.]
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