prick

• IPA^(key): /pɹɪk/
• Rhymes: -ɪk

From Middle English prik, prikke, from Old English prica, pricu (“a sharp point, minute mark, spot, dot, small portion, prick”), from Proto-Germanic *prikô, *prikō (“a prick, point”), of uncertain origin, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *breyǵ- (“to scrape, scratch, rub, prickle, chap”). Cognate with West Frisian prik (“small hole”), Dutch prik (“point, small stick”), Danish prik (“dot”), Icelandic prik (“dot, small stick”). Pejorative context came from prickers, or witch-hunters.

prick (plural pricks)

1. A small hole or perforation, caused by piercing. [from 10th c.]
2. An indentation or small mark made with a pointed object. [from 10th c.]
3. (obsolete) A dot or other diacritical mark used in writing; a point. [10th-18th c.]
4. (obsolete) A tiny particle; a small amount of something; a jot. [10th-18th c.]
5. A small pointed object. [from 10th c.]
   • Shakespeare

     Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary.

   • Bible, Acts ix. 5

     It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

6. The experience or feeling of being pierced or punctured by a small, sharp object. [from 13th c.]

   I felt a sharp prick as the nurse took a sample of blood.

   • A. Tucker

     the pricks of conscience

7. (slang, vulgar) The penis. [from 16th c.]
8. (Britain, Australia, slang, derogatory) Someone (especially a man or boy) who is unpleasant, rude or annoying. [from 16th c.]
9. (now historical) A small roll of yarn or tobacco. [from 17th c.]
10. The footprint of a hare.
11. (obsolete) A point or mark on the dial, noting the hour.
    • Shakespeare

      the prick of noon

12. (obsolete) The point on a target at which an archer aims; the mark; the pin.
    • Spenser, The Shepheardes Calender, September

      they that shooten nearest the prick

From Middle English prikken, from Old English prician, priccan (“to prick”), from Proto-Germanic *prikōną, *prikjaną (“to pierce, prick”), of uncertain origin; perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *breyǵ- (“to scrape, scratch, rub, prickle, chap”). Cognate with dialectal English pritch, Dutch prikken (“to prick, sting”), Middle High German pfrecken (“to prick”), Swedish pricka (“to dot, prick”), and possibly to Lithuanian įbrėžti (“to scrape, scratch, carve, inscribe, strike”).

prick (third-person singular simple present pricks, present participle pricking, simple past and past participle pricked)

1. (transitive) To pierce or puncture slightly. [from 11th c.]

   John hardly felt the needle prick his arm when the adept nurse drew blood.

   1. (farriery) To drive a nail into (a horse's foot), so as to cause lameness.
2. (transitive) To form by piercing or puncturing.

   to prick holes in paper

   to prick a pattern for embroidery

   to prick the notes of a musical composition

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Cowper to this entry?)

3. (obsolete) To mark or denote by a puncture; to designate by pricking; to choose; to mark.
   • Francis Bacon

     Some who are pricked for sheriffs.

   • Sir Walter Scott

     Let the soldiers for duty be carefully pricked off.

   • Shakespeare

     Those many, then, shall die: their names are pricked.

4. (transitive, chiefly nautical) To mark the surface of (something) with pricks or dots; especially, to trace a ship’s course on (a chart). [from 16th c.]
5. (nautical, obsolete) To run a middle seam through the cloth of a sail.
6. To fix by the point; to attach or hang by puncturing.

   to prick a knife into a board

   • Sandys:

     The cooks prick it [a slice] on a prong of iron.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Isaac Newton to this entry?)

7. (intransitive, dated) To be punctured; to suffer or feel a sharp pain, as by puncture.

   A sore finger pricks.

   • 17th century (probably 1606), William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act IV, scene 1:

     By the pricking of my thumbs, / Something wicked this way comes.

8. To make sharp; to erect into a point; to raise, as something pointed; said especially of the ears of an animal, such as a horse or dog; and usually followed by up.
   • Dryden

     The courser […] pricks up his ears.

9. (horticulture) Usually in the form prick out: to plant (seeds or seedlings) in holes made in soil at regular intervals.
   • 2002 July 6, Carol Klein, “Coming up primroses”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening)‎, archived from the original on 15 February 2013:

     Seed should be sown thinly and evenly to enable seedlings to be pricked out without disturbing those that have just emerged. If there is space, seedlings should be pricked out individually, either into small pots or module trays.

   • 2005 October 22, Valerie Bourne, “Self-seeding”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening)‎, archived from the original on 24 November 2013:

     All three germinate well in pots and can be pricked out and potted on with no problems. […] Grass seeds can be collected as the heads begin to break up. Sow them in late spring, prick out small bundles of seedlings into 7.5cm (3in) pots and transplant them in late May.

   • 2015 September 21, Helen Yemm, “How to manage hollyhocks [print version: Hollyhock and elder care, evil weevils, 12 September 2015, page 7]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening)‎, archived from the original on 25 September 2015:

     Geoff might prefer to "take control": to collect seed and sow it next spring, pricking out a few of the best seedlings, growing them on in pots next summer before planting them out in the autumn.

10. (transitive) To incite, stimulate, goad. [from 13th c.]
    • 16th c., Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona, ii. 7.

      My duty pricks me on to utter that.

11. (intransitive, archaic) To urge one's horse on; to ride quickly. [from 14th c.]
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.1:

      At last, as through an open plaine they yode, / They spide a knight that towards them pricked fayre […] .

    • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book II, lines 527 to 538.

      Part, on the plain or in the air sublime, / Upon the wing or in swift race contend, / As at the Olympian games or Pythian fields; / Part curb their fiery steed, or shun the goal / With rapid wheel, or fronted brigads form : / As when, to warn proud cities, war appears / Waged in the trouble sky, and armies rush / To battle in the clouds; before each van / Prick forth the aery knights, and couch their spears / Till thickest legions close; with feats of arms / From either end of heaven the welkin burns.

    • 1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque:

      Indeed, it is a memorable subject for consideration, with what unconcern and gaiety mankind pricks on along the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

12. To affect with sharp pain; to sting, as with remorse.
    • Bible, Acts ii. 37

      Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart.

    • Tennyson

      I was pricked with some reproof.

13. (transitive) To make acidic or pungent.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Hudibras to this entry?)

14. (intransitive) To become sharp or acid; to turn sour, as wine.
15. To aim at a point or mark.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Hawkins to this entry?)

16. (obsolete) Usually as prick up: to dress; to prink.

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prick

1. exactly, sharp, on the spot

   vi träffas prick klockan sju

   let's meet at seven o'clock sharp

   att skjuta prick

   to shoot for a target

prick c

1. a dot, small spot

   Sista bokstaven i det svenska alfabetet är "ö", det vill säga ett "o" med två prickar över.

   The last letter in the Swedish alphabet is "ö", that is, an "o" with two dots over it.

2. a remark, a stain (in a record of good behaviour)

   Han har haft körkort i 40 år och kört utan prickar

   He's had a driver's license for 40 years and received no tickets

3. a guy, person; especially about a particularly nice or funny one

   Det var en riktigt trevlig prick, det där.

   That was a really nice guy, that.

4. a floating seamark in the form of a painted pole, possibly with cones, lights and reflectors

   Ser du om pricken därborta är en nord eller en ost?

   Can you see whether the mark over there is a north mark or an east mark?

In the sense of "person", it is mainly used in conjunction with the adjectives rolig (funny) or trevlig (nice).

• mitt i prick - right on the spot

• prick in Svenska Akademiens ordlista över svenska språket (13th ed., online)