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.