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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Pricked

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. 3

  7. 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)

    1. To run a middle seam through, as the cloth of a sail.

    2. To trace on a chart, as a ship's course.

  11. (Far.)

    1. To drive a nail into (a horse's foot), so as to cause lameness.

    2. To nick.

Wiktionary
pricked

vb. (en-past of: prick)

Usage examples of "pricked".

The stallion turned his head toward him, his ears pricked forward and he neighed softly.

The horse screamed again, his head raised high, his ears pricked forward.

The stallion reached his great head out over the door, his ears pricked forward, and his eyes moving from stall to stall.

The horse had his head high, his ears pricked, and he too seemed to be watching the departing ship.

When he sighted Alec and Henry he pricked his ears forward, snorted, and withdrew inside.

Then his ears pricked forward and he retracked, coming to a halt not far from the tree.

Then the saddle and bridle were on and he stood there quietly, his ears pricked forward again and his eyes shifting from the track to Alec.

Satan circled slowly about them, his head craned and heavy ears pricked forward.

He pricked his heavy ears forward as he swept by the driving chestnut, and then with a final burst of still greater speed, he swept under the wire!

Tossing his head, Satan pricked his ears forward and began nibbling at the flowers about his neck.

She pricked the middle finger of her right hand, and let one drop of blood fall on each of the four tether lines that held the web to the frame.

Demon pricked his ears and lunged to the right toward a lone old oak tree, almost throwing Daemon from the saddle.

Daemon wanted to say something light and cheerful to take away the look in her eyes, but there was something about the way the stallion suddenly twitched his ears and seemed to be listening to them that pricked his nerves.

In the puddly black earth were broken grass stalks, they pricked our skin, and thousands of tiny resting insects.

Their bitterness pricked my tongue and a little bug resting on the grass ended up in my mouth.