pricking

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɪkɪŋ/
• Rhymes: -ɪkɪŋ

Verb

pricking

1. present participle and gerund of prick

Noun

pricking (countable and uncountable, plural prickings)

1. The act of piercing or puncturing with a sharp point.

   The prickings of thorns

2. (figurative) A sensation that pricks,or causes sharp emotional pain.

   the prickings of conscience

3. The driving of a nail into a horse's foot so as to produce lameness.
   • 1841, Richard Mason, The Gentleman's New Pocket Farrier:

     THE pricking a horse has proved to be as useless an operation as it is simple, seldom or never having the desired effect; consequently the practice should be abolished

4. (mining) A nicking.
   • 1906, George Mitcheson Bailes, Modern Mining Practice:

     No better material can be used than seggar or underclay prickings

5. The act of tracing a hare by its footmarks.
6. (obsolete) Dressing oneself for show; prinking.

Derived terms

• pricking at the belt
• pricking-up

 

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “pricking”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)