\Prick\, n. [AS. prica, pricca, pricu; akin to LG. prick,
pricke, D. prik, Dan. prik, prikke, Sw. prick. Cf. {Prick},
v.]
1. That which pricks, penetrates, or punctures; a sharp and
   slender thing; a pointed instrument; a goad; a spur, etc.;
   a point; a skewer.
         Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary.
                                               --Shak.
         It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
                                               --Acts ix. 5.
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.) A small roll; as, a prick of spun yarn; a prick of
   tobacco.

\Prick\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Pricked}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Pricking}.] [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 [a slice] on a prong of iron.
                                               --Sandys.
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.
6. To affect with sharp pain; to sting, as with remorse. ``I
   was pricked with some reproof.'' --Tennyson.
         Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their
         heart.                                --Acts ii. 37.
7. To make sharp; to erect into a point; to raise, as
   something pointed; -- said especially of the ears of an
   animal, as a horse or dog; and usually followed by up; --
   hence, to prick up the ears, to listen sharply; to have
   the attention and interest strongly engaged. ``The courser
   . . . pricks up his ears.'' --Dryden.
8. To render acid or pungent. [Obs.] --Hudibras.
9. To dress; to prink; -- usually with up. [Obs.]
10. (Naut)
    (a) To run a middle seam through, as the cloth of a sail.
    (b) To trace on a chart, as a ship's course.
11. (Far.)
    (a) To drive a nail into (a horse's foot), so as to cause
        lameness.
    (b) To nick.

\Prick\, v. i.
1. To be punctured; to suffer or feel a sharp pain, as by
   puncture; as, a sore finger pricks.
2. To spur onward; to ride on horseback. --Milton.
         A gentle knight was pricking on the plain.
                                               --Spenser.
3. To become sharp or acid; to turn sour, as wine.
4. To aim at a point or mark. --Hawkins.