Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PRICK, v.t. [Sax. priccian; D. prikken; Dan. prikker; Sw. pricka; Ir. priocam.]

1. To pierce with a sharp pointed instrument or substance; as, to prick one with a pin, a needle, a thorn or the like.
2. To erect a pointed thing, or with an acuminated point; applied chiefly to the ears, and primarily to the pointed ears of an animal. The horse pricks his ears, or pricks up his ears.
3. To fix by the point; as, to prick a knife into a board. – Newton.
4. To hang on a point. The cooks prick a slice on a prong of iron. – Sandys.
5. To designate by a puncture or mark. Some who are pricked for sherifs, and are fit, set out of the bill. – Bacon.
6. To spur; to goad; to incite; sometimes with on or off. My duty pricks me on to utter that / Which no worldly good should draw from me. – Shak. But how if honor prick me off. – Shak.
7. To affect with sharp pain; to sting with remorse. When they heard this they were pricked in their hearts. – Acts ii. Ps. lxxiii.
8. To make acid or pungent to the taste; as, wine is pricked. – Hudibras.
9. To write a musical composition with the proper notes on a scale.
10. In seamen's language, to run a middle seam through the cloth of a sail. – Mar. Dict. To prick a chart, is to trace a ship's course on a chart. – Mar. Dict.