Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Pricking"

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

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.

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

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

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

Some who are pricked for sheriffs. --Bacon.

Let the soldiers for duty be carefully pricked off.
--Sir W.
Scott.

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

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.

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

Who pricketh his blind horse over the fallows.
--Chaucer.

The season pricketh every gentle heart. --Chaucer.

My duty pricks me on to utter that. --Shak.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

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].

2. (Far.)
(a) The driving of a nail into a horse's foot so as to
produce lameness.
(b) Same as {Nicking}.

3. A sensation of being pricked. --Shak.

4. The mark or trace left by a hare's foot; a prick; also,
the act of tracing a hare by its footmarks. [Obs.]

5. Dressing one's self for show; prinking. [Obs.]

From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)

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


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