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.)
Defn: A small roll; as, a prick of spun yarn; a prick of tobacco.
PRICK
Prick, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Pricked; p. pr. & vb. n. Pricking.] Etym:
[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 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.