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to strike at with anything pointed; to act upon with a pointed instrument; to pierce; to prick, as with a pin.

A West Indian name for the prickly pear (Opuntia); -- called also pimploes.

To excite to action by causing resentment or jealousy; to stimulate; to prick; as, to pique ambition, or curiosity. Prior.

Pricking; piercing; sharp; pungent. "His poignant spear." Spenser. "Poynaunt sauce." Chaucer.

A prickly tropical shrub (Cæsalpinia, formerly Poinciana, pulcherrima), with bipinnate leaves, and racemes of showy orange-red flowers with long crimson filaments.

That which pricks or pierces; the sharp end of anything, esp. the sharp end of a piercing instrument, as a needle or a pin.

es cut from poppy petals for the lining of its cells; -- called also upholsterer bee. -- Prickly poppy (Bot.), Argemone Mexicana, a yellow-flowered plant of the Poppy family, but as prickly as a thistle. -- Poppy seed, the seed the opium poppy (P. somniferum). -- Spatling poppy (Bot.), a species of Silene (S. inflat…

imp. of Prick. Chaucer.

A pointed instrument for pricking or puncturing, as a goad, an awl, a skewer, etc.

To prick; to goad; to progue. [Scot.]

To prick; to goad. [ Scot. & Local, U. S.].

A sharp-pointed instrument. Prick it on a prong of iron. Sandys.

A puncturing, or pricking; a puncture.

To pierce with a small, pointed instrument, or the like; to prick; to make a puncture in; as, to puncture the skin.

Causing a sharp sensation, as of the taste, smell, or feelings; pricking; biting; acrid; as, a pungent spice. Pungent radish biting infant's tongue. Shenstone. The pungent grains of titillating dust. Pope.

A prick or scruple of conscience; uneasiness of conscience; compunction. Dryden.

The pricking of a horse's foot in nailing on a shoe.

n, a pin made in the form of a clasp, with a guard covering its point so that it will not prick the wearer. -- safety plug. See Fusible plug, under Fusible. -- Safety switch. See Switch. -- Safety touchdown (Football), the act or result of a player's touching to the ground behind his own goal line a ball which recei…

us finish, and is used in cabinetwork. The name is also given to the wood of a species of prickly ash (Xanthoxylum Caribæum) growing in Florida and the West Indies.

), a climbing knotweed (Polygonum sagittatum) with a square stem beset with fine recurved prickles along the angles. -- Scratch wig. Same as Scratch, 4, above. Thackeray.