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Picking vs Pricking - What's the difference?

picking | pricking |

As verbs the difference between picking and pricking

is that picking is present participle of lang=en while pricking is present participle of prick.

As nouns the difference between picking and pricking

is that picking is a gathering to pick fruit while pricking is the act of piercing or puncturing with a sharp point.

picking

English

Verb

(head)

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • A gathering to pick fruit.
    • We went to a strawberry picking last June.
  • (usually, pluralized) Items remaining after others have selected the best; scraps, as of food.
  • * 1899 , , Via Crucis , ch. 9:
    • Gilbert wandered through . . .the haunts of ravenous dogs and homeless cats that kept themselves alive on the choice pickings of the city's garbage.
  • (usually, pluralized) Income or other gains, especially if obtained in a unscrupulous or objectionable manner.
  • * 1919 , , The Secret of the Tower , ch. 11:
    • He liked the pickings which the job brought him much better than the job itself.

    Synonyms

    * (items remaining after others have selected the best) leftovers

    Derived terms

    * easy pickings * in the picking * nit-picking * slim pickings

    pricking

    English

    Verb

    (head)

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of piercing or puncturing with a sharp point.
  • * Bible, Proverbs xii. 18
    • There is that speaketh like the prickings of a sword.
  • A sensation that pricks.
    • the prickings of conscience
  • The driving of a nail into a horse's foot so as to produce lameness.
  • (mining) A nicking.
  • The mark or trace left by a hare's foot; a prick.
  • The act of tracing a hare by its footmarks.
  • (obsolete) Dressing oneself for show; prinking.
    • (Webster 1913)