Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use prick in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Prick means a small hole or perforation, caused by piercing. Example: “I felt a sharp prick as the nurse took a sample of blood.”

Examples of prick by meaning

nounThe experience or feeling of being pierced or punctured by a small, sharp object.

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

verbTo pierce or puncture slightly.

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

verbTo form by piercing or puncturing.

  • to prick holes in paper
  • to prick a pattern for embroidery
  • to prick the notes of a musical composition

verbTo be punctured; to suffer or feel a sharp pain, as by puncture.

  • A sore finger pricks.

verbTo make or become sharp; to erect into a point; to raise, as something pointed; said especially of the ears of an...

  • The dog's ears pricked up at the sound of a whistle.

verbUsually in the form prick out: to plant (seeds or seedlings) in holes made in soil at regular intervals.

  • Seed should be sown thinly and evenly to enable seedlings to be pricked out without disturbing those that have just emerged.2002 July 6, Carol Klein, “Coming up primroses”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening), archived from the original on 15 Feb 2013
  • Sow them in late spring, prick out small bundles of seedlings into 7.5cm (3in) pots and transplant them in late May.2005 October 22, Valerie Bourne, “Self-seeding”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening), archived from the original on 24 Nov 2013
  • 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.2015 September 21, Helen Yemm, “How to manage hollyhocks [print version: Hollyhock and elder care, evil weevils, 12 September 2015, page...

verbTo affect with sharp pain; to sting, as with remorse.

  • It may be that his conscience pricked him, or that he had a glimpse of his sin and its coming punishment.1902 January, John Buchan, “The Outgoing of the Tide”, in The Watcher by the Threshold, and Other Tales, Edinburgh; London: William...

More sentences with prick

  • Make sure to keep your ears pricked and your eyes peeled.From the entry pricked
  • In their report the customers called her a “PT” (prick tease).2024, Henry Rex Greene, Marlene: A Murder Mystery, page 23. From the entry pt
  • In my martinied state I misjudged this distance and pricked myself.2020, James Engelhardt, Marianne Kunkel, Kwame Dawes, The Prairie Schooner Book Prize: Tenth Anniversary Reader. From the entry martinied
  • Prick the piadine all over with a fork to prevent them from puffing up.2016, Mark Bittman, How to Bake Everything: Simple Recipes for the Best Baking, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 385…. From the entry piadina
  • If the walls are rough or uneven, they should be first pricked up, and then floated.2016, William Millar, Plastering: Plain and Decorative, →ISBN, page 218. From the entry prick up
  • The smell of burnt flesh, which the perilla seeds couldn't wholly mask, pricked my nose.2015, Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith, The Vegetarian, Granta, published 2018, page 42. From the entry perilla
  • As a gloss on this line, Partridge cites the undictionaried proverb 'A standing prick hath no conscience.'2011, Randall Martin, Katherine West Scheil, Shakespeare / Adaptation / Modern Drama, page 148. From the entry undictionaried
  • “How much does it hurt?” “Well, imagine getting pricked with needles over and over again.” “Oh, gods.2009 December 4, Jay McKiernan, chapter 10, in The Twins: A Novel (The Tales of Agramon; 1), Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 196. From the entry oh, gods
  • Pricking holes in the rolled-out pie dough allows the steam to escape while it's baking.Emma Christensen (11 July 2008), “How and When to Dock a Pie Crust”, in The Kitchn. From the entry dock
  • After pressing it in and shaping the edge, prick it all over with a fork.Emma Christensen (11 July 2008), “How and When to Dock a Pie Crust”, in The Kitchn. From the entry dock
  • So use all of your energy to improve your chink-land, chinkee prick.2000 February 5, Bubbity, “HUMAN RIGHTS, the bitter truth to some Chinese”, in soc.culture.china (Usenet). From the entry chink-land
  • The memory of harassments, threats and manhandlings, the fear brought by torture pricks painfully in his subconscious.1986, Justice & Peace Review, volumes 1-7, page 13. From the entry manhandling
  • The oblong window showed the night sky pricked here and there with stars.1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 19. From the entry oblong
  • The Spanish dagger plants at the gate pricked his calves painfully and he stumbled forward.1963 (date written), John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces, London: Penguin Books, published 1980 (1981 printing), →ISBN. From the entry Spanish dagger
  • What happened happened, and it was no good kicking against the pricks.1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “The Young Life of Paul”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC, part I, page 67. From the entry kick against the pricks
  • People with diabetes mellitus rely predominantly on finger pricking to measure blood levels of glucose, which can be onerous.2024 June, “A novel system for non-invasive measurement of blood levels of glucose”, in Nature Reviews Endocrinology, volume 20, →DOI…. From the entry onerous
  • Says little prick for a local anaesthetic.2023, Nicolas Freeling, No Part in Your Death. From the entry tutster
  • Carriegate would have pricked his interest under normal circumstances.2022 June 22, Madeline Grant, “Spluttering Boris Johnson reverts to filibuster mode as PMQs get personal”, in The Telegraph, archived from…. From the entry Carriegate
  • Full of posh pricks, you said once.2022, Nicole Kennedy, After Paris. From the entry gap yah
  • All of the neuropathic pain was back in her hands, a continuous sparkling flare, like being pricked by glass splinters.2021, Arkady Martine, A Desolation Called Peace, Tor, page 343. From the entry neuropathic pain
  • O'Meara swore as I rolled up to my feet, pain pricking along my ribs where Feather's claws had found flesh.2018, Daniel Potter, High Steaks. From the entry burnination
  • He'd video-streamed a segment of last night's drunken henfest in the kitchen to Haupt, but the humorless had prick been unamused.2009, Shannon McKenna, Tasting Fear, page 32. From the entry henfest
  • Just shut your hole and listen, swole-headed prick.2008, David Fuller, Sweetsmoke, London: Abacus, →ISBN, page 232. From the entry swole
  • “A newling!” Fascinated, but wary not to stand and reach for it, Rhiana kept her ears pricked—and heard another.2006, Michele Hauf, Rhiana. From the entry newling
  • I mean, obviously people are going to think I'm a showboat, and a little bit of a prick.2004, Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, spoken by Steve Zissou (Bill Murray). From the entry showboat
  • The spines on aloe vera look cactusy, but they are really faux spines and not likely to prick you at all.2004, Mariella Ienna, Flowers at home, page 162. From the entry cactusy
  • He writes self-magnifyingly of his successes, while pricking out the defailments of others in words as sharp-ended as trundle-shot.2001, William T. Vollmann, Argall: The True Story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith, New York: Viking, page 23. From the entry trundle shot
  • Selfaccusation, selfmocking monolith of pickled, pricking peddlesome whirlpool of sequestration.2000, Yang-Un Moon Eiman, Multi-Mega-Trans-Metamorphosis. From the entry peddlesome
  • They cast no reflection in the water at their feet – it was too triturated by the pricking of the rain.1946, Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, →OCLC. From the entry triturated

Meaning of prick

  1. noun A small hole or perforation, caused by piercing.
  2. noun An indentation or small mark made with a pointed object.
  3. noun A dot or other diacritical mark used in writing; a point.

Full definition of prick

Questions about prick in a sentence

How do you use prick in a sentence?
Prick is used as a noun and verb. For example: “I felt a sharp prick as the nurse took a sample of blood.”
What is a short sentence with prick?
“A sore finger pricks.”
What does prick mean?
Prick means a small hole or perforation, caused by piercing.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: prick (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use prick in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/prick. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.