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Prick vs Cleave - What's the difference?

prick | cleave | Related terms |

Prick is a related term of cleave.


In lang=en terms the difference between prick and cleave

is that prick is to become sharp or acid; to turn sour, as wine while cleave is to cling, adhere or stick fast to something; used with to or unto.

As nouns the difference between prick and cleave

is that prick is a small hole or perforation, caused by piercing while cleave is (technology) flat, smooth surface produced by cleavage, or any similar surface produced by similar techniques, as in glass.

As verbs the difference between prick and cleave

is that prick is to pierce or puncture slightly while cleave is to split or sever something with, or as if with, a sharp instrument or cleave can be to cling, adhere or stick fast to something; used with to or unto.

prick

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) prik, prikke, from (etyl) prica, . Pejorative context came from prickers, or witch-hunters.

Noun

(en noun)
  • A small hole or perforation, caused by piercing.
  • An indentation or small mark made with a pointed object.
  • (obsolete) A dot or other diacritical mark used in writing; a point.
  • (obsolete) A tiny particle; a small amount of something; a jot.
  • A small pointed object.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Pins, wooden pricks , nails, sprigs of rosemary.
  • * Bible, Acts ix. 5
  • It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks .
  • The experience or feeling of being pierced or punctured by a small, sharp object.
  • I felt a sharp prick as the nurse took a sample of blood.
  • * A. Tucker
  • the pricks of conscience
  • (slang, vulgar) The penis.
  • (slang, pejorative) Someone (especially a man or boy) who is unpleasant, rude or annoying.
  • (now, historical) A small roll of yarn or tobacco.
  • The footprint of a hare.
  • (obsolete) A point or mark on the dial, noting the hour.
  • * Shakespeare
  • the prick of noon
  • (obsolete) The point on a target at which an archer aims; the mark; the pin.
  • * Spenser
  • they that shooten nearest the prick
    Derived terms
    * pricker * prickle * prickly * pricktease * prickteaser

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To pierce or puncture slightly.
  • John hardly felt the needle prick his arm when the adept nurse drew blood.
  • To form by piercing or puncturing.
  • to prick holes in paper
    to prick a pattern for embroidery
    to prick the notes of a musical composition
    (Cowper)
  • (dated) To be punctured; to suffer or feel a sharp pain, as by puncture.
  • A sore finger pricks .
  • To incite, stimulate, goad.
  • * (rfdate), (Shakespeare), (Two Gentlemen of Verona) , ii. 7.
  • My duty pricks me on to utter that.
  • To affect with sharp pain; to sting, as with remorse.
  • * Bible, Acts ii. 37
  • Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart.
  • * Tennyson
  • I was pricked with some reproof.
  • (archaic) To urge one's horse on; to ride quickly.
  • (Milton)
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , III.1:
  • At last, as through an open plaine they yode, / They spide a knight that towards them pricked fayre [...].
  • * 1881 , :
  • Indeed, it is a memorable subject for consideration, with what unconcern and gaiety mankind pricks on along the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
  • (transitive, chiefly, nautical) To mark the surface of (something) with pricks or dots; especially, to trace a ship’s course on (a chart).
  • (nautical, obsolete) To run a middle seam through the cloth of a sail. (The Universal Dictionary of the English Language, 1896)
  • To make acidic or pungent.
  • (Hudibras)
  • To become sharp or acid; to turn sour, as wine.
  • To aim at a point or mark.
  • (Hawkins)
  • To fix by the point; to attach or hang by puncturing.
  • to prick a knife into a board
  • * Sandys
  • The cooks prick it [a slice] on a prong of iron.
    (Isaac Newton)
  • (obsolete) To mark or denote by a puncture; to designate by pricking; to choose; to mark.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • Some who are pricked for sheriffs.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
  • Let the soldiers for duty be carefully pricked off.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Those many, then, shall die: their names are pricked .
  • To make sharp; to erect into a point; to raise, as something pointed; said especially of the ears of an animal, such as a horse or dog; and usually followed by up .
  • * Dryden
  • The courser pricks up his ears.
  • (obsolete) To dress; to prink; usually with up .
  • (farriery) To drive a nail into (a horse's foot), so as to cause lameness.
  • (Webster 1913)

    cleave

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) cleven, from the (etyl) strong verb .

    Verb

  • To split or sever something with, or as if with, a sharp instrument.
  • The wings cleaved the foggy air.
  • * Shakespeare
  • O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.
  • (mineralogy) To break a single crystal (such as a gemstone or semiconductor wafer) along one of its more symmetrical crystallographic planes (often by impact), forming facets on the resulting pieces.
  • To make or accomplish by or as if by cutting.
  • The truck cleaved a path through the ice.
  • (chemistry) To split (a complex molecule) into simpler molecules.
  • To split.
  • (mineralogy) Of a crystal, to split along a natural plane of division.
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • (technology) Flat, smooth surface produced by cleavage, or any similar surface produced by similar techniques, as in glass.
  • Derived terms

    * (l)

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) cleofian, from (etyl) . Cognates include German kleben, Dutch kleven.

    Verb

    (cleav)
  • To cling, adhere or stick fast to something; used with to or unto.