pricking

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To pierce or puncture slightly.
   • John hardly felt the needle prick his arm when the adept nurse drew blood.
   1. (transitive) To drive a nail into (a horse's foot), so as to cause lameness.
   2. (transitive) To shoot without killing.
      • They had shot at old Tom, the hare, too, but he is still alive; at least I pricked him yesterday morn across the path into the turnip field.1871, Robert Smith Surtees, Jorrocks's jaunts and jollities, page 48
2. (transitive) To form by piercing or puncturing.
   • to prick holes in paper
3. (obsolete) To mark or denote by a puncture; to designate by pricking; to choose; to mark.
   • Some who are pricked for sheriffs.c. 1620, Francis Bacon, letter of advice to Sir George Villiers
4. (transitive) To mark the surface of (something) with pricks or dots; especially, to trace a ship’s course on (a chart).

See all 31 meanings of prick