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prick

Pronunciation: /pɹɪk/

The English word “prick” has 20 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A small hole or perforation, caused by piercing.
  2. An indentation or small mark made with a pointed object.
  3. A dot or other diacritical mark used in writing; a point.
  4. A tiny particle; a small amount of something; a jot.
  5. A small pointed object.
  6. The experience or feeling of being pierced or punctured by a small, sharp object.
  7. A feeling of remorse.
  8. The penis.
  9. Someone (especially a male) who is unpleasant, rude or annoying.
  10. A small roll of yarn or tobacco.
  11. The footprint of a hare.
  12. A point or mark on the dial, noting the hour.
  13. The point on a target at which an archer aims; the mark; the pin.

verb

  1. To pierce or puncture slightly.
  2. To drive a nail into (a horse's foot), so as to cause lameness.
  3. To shoot without killing.
  4. To form by piercing or puncturing.
  5. To mark or denote by a puncture; to designate by pricking; to choose; to mark.
  6. To mark the surface of (something) with pricks or dots; especially, to trace a ship’s course on (a chart).
  7. To run a middle seam through the cloth of a sail.

Etymology

From Middle English prik, prikke, from Old English prica, pricu (“a sharp point, minute mark, spot, dot, small portion, prick”), from Proto-West Germanic *prikō, *priku, 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”), West Frisian prikke…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.