prick
/pɹɪk/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.60 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A small hole or perforation, caused by piercing.
Example Sentences
- "Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary."
- "It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks."
- "I felt a sharp prick as the nurse took a sample of blood."
- "1768–1777, Abraham Tucker, The Light of Nature Pursued the pricks of conscience"
- "Patriarchal attitudes have made a society where men rule and women obey, where "you'd-better-know-your-place-boy," where gay men actually play husband-and-wife (my lover and I did it for four years, until it became intolerable), where king prick lays down the law."
- "the prick of noon"
Etymology
From Middle English prik, prikke, from Old English prica, pricu (“a sharp point, minute mark, spot, dot, small portion, prick”), from Proto-West Germanic *prikō, *priku, from Proto-Germanic *prikô, *prikō (“a prick, point”), of uncertain origin, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *breyǵ- (“to scrape, scratch, rub, prickle, chap”). Cognate with West Frisian prik (“small hole”), West Frisian prikke (“penis”), Dutch prik (“point, small stick", also "penis”), Danish prik (“dot”), Icelandic prik (“dot, small stick”).