Prick

v. t. [imp. & p. p. PRICKED (prĭkt); p. pr. & vb. n. PRICKING.] [A-S. priccian, L. Ger. pricken, D. prikken, Dan. pricke, Sw. pricka. See PRICK, n.]

1. To pierce with a sharp-pointed instrument or substance; to make a puncture in; to drive a fine point into; as, to prick one with a pin, needle, or the like.
2. To fix by the point; to hang by puncturing; to put on by puncturing; as, to prick a knife into a board. Newton.

The cooks prick a slice on a prong of iron. Sandys. 3. To mark or designate by a puncture; to denote by pricking. Those many then shall die; their names are pricked. Shak. Some who are pricked for sheriffs, and are fit, set out of the bill. Bacon. 4. To mark the outline of by puncturing; to trace by pricking; to form or make by pricking; as, to prick a pattern for embroidery; to prick the notes of a musical composition. When playing with thy vesture’s tissued flowers . . . I pricked them into paper with a pin. Cowper. 5. To spur; to goad; to incite; — sometimes with on or off. “As o’er thy plain the pilgrim pricked his steed.” Byron. My duty pricks me on to utter that Which else no worldly good should draw from me. Shak. 6. To affect with sharp pain; to sting, as with remorse. I was pricked with some reproof. Tennyson.

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; — hence, to prick up the ears; to attend closely; to listen sharply; to have the attention and interest strongly engaged.
8. To render acid. “Pricked wine.” Hudibras.
9. (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.

n. [A-S. prica, pricca, pricu, L. Ger. prick, pricke, D. prik, Dan. prik, prikke, Sw. prick.] 1. That which pricks, penetrates, or punctures; a sharp and slender thing; a pointed instrument, a goad, spur, or the like; 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. Hence, sharp, stinging pain; remorse.
3. A mark made by a point; a puncture; a point; hence, (a.) A point or mark on the dial, noting the hour.

'Tis now upon the prick of noon. Shak. (b.) The point on a target at which an archer aims; the mark; the pin. “They that shooten nearest the prick.” Spenser. (c.) A mark denoting degree; degree; pitch. “To prick of highest praise forth to advance.” Spenser. (d.) A mathematical point. Warner. “In the old English translations of Euclid, this word is regularly used where point now occurs.” Nares. (e.) The print of a hare on the ground. 4. (Naut.) A small roll; as, a prick of spun-yarn; a prick of tobacco.