PRICK, v.t.

1. To become acid; as, cider pricks in the rays of the sun.
2. To dress one's self for show.
3. To come upon the spur; to shoot along. Before each van / Prick forth the airy knights. – Milton.
4. To aim at a point, mark or place. – Hawkins.

1. To pierce with a sharp pointed instrument or substance; as, to prick one with a pin, a needle, a thorn or the like.
2. To erect a pointed thing, or with an acuminated point; applied chiefly to the ears, and primarily to the pointed ears of an animal. The horse pricks his ears, or pricks up his ears.
3. To fix by the point; as, to prick a knife into a board. – Newton.
4. To hang on a point. The cooks prick a slice on a prong of iron. – Sandys.
5. To designate by a puncture or mark. Some who are pricked for sherifs, and are fit, set out of the bill. – Bacon.
6. To spur; to goad; to incite; sometimes with on or off. My duty pricks me on to utter that / Which no worldly good should draw from me. – Shak. But how if honor prick me off. – Shak.
7. To affect with sharp pain; to sting with remorse. When they heard this they were pricked in their hearts. – Acts ii. Ps. lxxiii.
8. To make acid or pungent to the taste; as, wine is pricked. – Hudibras.
9. To write a musical composition with the proper notes on a scale.
10. In seamen's language, to run a middle seam through the cloth of a sail. – Mar. Dict. To prick a chart, is to trace a ship's course on a chart. – Mar. Dict.

1. A slender pointed instrument or substance, which is hard enough to pierce the skin; a goad; a spur. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. – Acts ix.
2. Sharp stinging pain; remorse. – Shak.
3. A spot or mark at which archers aim. – Carew.
4. A point; a fixed place. – Spenser.
5. A puncture or place entered by a point. – Brown.
6. The print of a hare on the ground.
7. In seamen's language, a small roll; as, a prick of spun yarn; a prick of tobacco.

1. That which pricks, penetrates, or punctures; a sharp and slender thing; a pointed instrument; a goad; a spur, etc.; a point; a skewer.
   
   

   Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary. Shak.

   It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. Acts ix. 5.

2. 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.
3. To be punctured; to suffer or feel a sharp pain, as by puncture; as, a sore finger pricks.
4. The act of pricking, or the sensation of being pricked; a sharp, stinging pain; figuratively, remorse.
   
   
   "The pricks of conscience." A. Tucker.
5. 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.

6. To spur onward; to ride on horseback.
   
   
   Milton.

   A gentle knight was pricking on the plain. Spenser.

7. A mark made by a pointed instrument; a puncture; a point.
   
   
   Hence: (a)
8. 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.

9. To become sharp or acid; to turn sour, as wine.
10. A small roll; as, a prick of spun yarn; a prick of tobacco.
11. 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.
12. To aim at a point or mark.
    
    
    Hawkins.
13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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.
16. To render acid or pungent.
    
    
    [Obs.] Hudibras.
17. To dress; to prink; -- usually with up.
    
    
    [Obs.]
18. To run a middle seam through, as the cloth of a sail.
    
    
    (b)
19. To drive a nail into (a horse's foot), so as to cause lameness.
    
    
    (b)