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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Prick \Prick\, n. [AS. prica, pricca, pricu; akin to LG. prick, pricke, D. prik, Dan. prik, prikke, Sw. prick. Cf. Prick, v.]

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. The act of pricking, or the sensation of being pricked; a sharp, stinging pain; figuratively, remorse. ``The pricks of conscience.'' --A. Tucker.

3. A mark made by a pointed instrument; a puncture; a point. Hence:
   (a) A point or mark on the dial, noting the hour. [Obs.]

``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. [Obs.]

``To prick of highest praise forth to advance.'' --Spenser.
   (d) A mathematical point; -- regularly used in old English translations of Euclid.
   (e) The footprint of a hare. [Obs.]

4. (Naut.) A small roll; as, a prick of spun yarn; a prick of tobacco.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Prick \Prick\, v. i.

1. To be punctured; to suffer or feel a sharp pain, as by puncture; as, a sore finger pricks.

2. To spur onward; to ride on horseback. --Milton.

A gentle knight was pricking on the plain. --Spenser.

3. To become sharp or acid; to turn sour, as wine.

4. To aim at a point or mark. --Hawkins.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)