Definition of "prick"

prick¹

/pɹɪk/

noun
plural pricks
1. A small hole or perforation, caused by piercing.
2. An indentation or small mark made with a pointed object.
3. (obsolete) A dot or other diacritical mark used in writing; a point.
4. (obsolete) A tiny particle; a small amount of something; a jot.
5. A small pointed object.
  Quotations
  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, [Act II, scene iii]
  It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Acts 9:5
6. The experience or feeling of being pierced or punctured by a small, sharp object.
7. A feeling of remorse.
  Quotations
  the pricks of conscience
  1768–1777, Abraham Tucker, The Light of Nature Pursued
8. (slang, vulgar) The penis.
9. (UK, Australia, US, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, South Africa, India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Hawaii, slang, derogatory) Someone (especially a man or boy) who is unpleasant, rude or annoying.
10. (now historical) A small roll of yarn or tobacco.
11. The footprint of a hare.
12. (obsolete) A point or mark on the dial, noting the hour.
  Quotations
  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, [Act II, scene iv]
13. (obsolete) The point on a target at which an archer aims; the mark; the pin.
  Quotations
  they that shooten nearest the prick
  1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “September. Aegloga Nona.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […]; reprinted as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, The Shepheardes Calender […], London: John C. Nimmo, […], 1890,

prick²

/pɹɪk/

verb
third-person singular simple present pricks, present participle pricking, simple past and past participle pricked
1. (transitive) To pierce or puncture slightly.
  1. (farriery) To drive a nail into (a horse's foot), so as to cause lameness.
  2. (transitive, hunting) To shoot without killing.
    Quotations
    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. (transitive) To form by piercing or puncturing.
  Quotations
  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, […]
3. (obsolete) To mark or denote by a puncture; to designate by pricking; to choose; to mark.
  Quotations
  Some who are pricked for sheriffs.
  c. 1620, Francis Bacon, letter of advice to Sir George Villiers
  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., 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, [Act IV, scene i]
4. (transitive, chiefly nautical) To mark the surface of (something) with pricks or dots; especially, to trace a ship’s course on (a chart).
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.
  Quotations
  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
  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, […]
7. (intransitive, dated) To be punctured; to suffer or feel a sharp pain, as by puncture.
  Quotations
  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, [Act IV, scene i]
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.
  Quotations
  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, […]
9. (horticulture) Usually in the form prick out: to plant (seeds or seedlings) in holes made in soil at regular intervals.
  Quotations
  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 February 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 November 2013
  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 ”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening)‎, archived from the original on 25 September 2015
10. (transitive) To incite, stimulate, goad.
  Quotations
  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, [Act II, scene vii]
11. (intransitive, archaic) To urge one's horse on; to ride quickly.
  Quotations
  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
  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], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, 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
12. To affect with sharp pain; to sting, as with remorse.
  Quotations
  Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Acts 2:37
  […] 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., […], 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, page 250
13. (transitive) To make acidic or pungent.
  Quotations
  For then their late Attracts decline, And turn as eager as prick'd Wine
  1662, [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: University Press, 1905
14. (intransitive) To become sharp or acid; to turn sour, as wine.
15. To aim at a point or mark.
  Quotations
  This prayse belongeth to stronge shootinge and drawinge of mightye bowes, not to prickinge, and nere shootinge.
  1544 (date written; published 1571), Roger Ascham, Toxophilus, the Schole, or Partitions, of Shooting. […], London: […] Thomas Marshe; republished in The English Works of Roger Ascham, […], London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley, […], and J[ohn] Newbery, […], 1761,
  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: […] H[umphrey] L[ownes] for Mathew Lownes; I. Browne; I. Helme; I. Busbie, published 1613
16. (obsolete, usually as prick up) to dress or adorn; to prink.

Definition of "prick"

prick1

noun

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prick2

verb

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prick¹

prick²