Prick vs Needle - What's the difference?
prick | needle | Related terms |
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
* Bible, Acts ix. 5
The experience or feeling of being pierced or punctured by a small, sharp object.
* A. Tucker
(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
(obsolete) The point on a target at which an archer aims; the mark; the pin.
* Spenser
To pierce or puncture slightly.
To form by piercing or puncturing.
(dated) To be punctured; to suffer or feel a sharp pain, as by puncture.
To incite, stimulate, goad.
* (rfdate), (Shakespeare), (Two Gentlemen of Verona) , ii. 7.
To affect with sharp pain; to sting, as with remorse.
* Bible, Acts ii. 37
* Tennyson
(archaic) To urge one's horse on; to ride quickly.
* 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , III.1:
* 1881 , :
(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.
To become sharp or acid; to turn sour, as wine.
To aim at a point or mark.
To fix by the point; to attach or hang by puncturing.
* Sandys
(obsolete) To mark or denote by a puncture; to designate by pricking; to choose; to mark.
* Francis Bacon
* Sir Walter Scott
* Shakespeare
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
(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)
A long, thin, sharp implement usually for piercing such as sewing, or knitting, acupuncture, tattooing, body piercing, medical injections etc.
Any slender, pointed object resembling a needle, such as a pointed crystal, a sharp pinnacle of rock, an obelisk, etc.
A long, thin device for indicating measurements on a dial or graph, e.g. a compass needle .
A sensor for playing phonograph records, a phonograph stylus.
A long, pointed leaf found on some conifers.
* 1994 , , ch. 2:
(informal, usually preceded by the) The death penalty carried out by lethal injection.
To pierce with a needle, especially for sewing or acupuncture.
* 1892 , H. Lindo Ferguson, "Operation on Microphthamlmic Eyes", Ophthalmic Review? , volume 11, page 48
* 2000 , Felix Mann, Reinventing Acupuncture , page 109
To tease in order to provoke; to poke fun at.
* 1984 , Leopold Caligor, Philip M. Bromberg, & James D. Meltzer, Clinical Perspectives on the Supervision of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy? , page 14
To form in the shape of a needle.
In transitive terms the difference between prick and needle
is that prick is to make acidic or pungent while needle is to form in the shape of a needle.prick
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) prik, prikke, from (etyl) prica, . Pejorative context came from prickers, or witch-hunters.Noun
(en noun)- 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.
- the pricks of conscience
- the prick of noon
- they that shooten nearest the prick
Derived terms
* pricker * prickle * prickly * pricktease * prickteaserEtymology 2
From (etyl) .Verb
(en verb)- John hardly felt the needle prick his arm when the adept nurse drew blood.
- to prick holes in paper
- to prick a pattern for embroidery
- to prick the notes of a musical composition
- (Cowper)
- A sore finger pricks .
- My duty pricks me on to utter that.
- Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart.
- I was pricked with some reproof.
- (Milton)
- At last, as through an open plaine they yode, / They spide a knight that towards them pricked fayre [...].
- Indeed, it is a memorable subject for consideration, with what unconcern and gaiety mankind pricks on along the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
- (Hudibras)
- (Hawkins)
- to prick a knife into a board
- The cooks prick it [a slice] on a prong of iron.
- (Isaac Newton)
- Some who are pricked for sheriffs.
- Let the soldiers for duty be carefully pricked off.
- Those many, then, shall die: their names are pricked .
- The courser pricks up his ears.
needle
English
(wikipedia needle)Noun
(en noun)- The seamstress threaded the needle to sew on a button.
- The needle on the fuel gauge pointed to empty.
- Ziggy bought some diamond needles for his hi-fi phonograph.
- At the very moment he cried out, David realised that what he had run into was only the Christmas tree. Disgusted with himself at such cowardice, he spat a needle from his mouth.
Derived terms
* compass needle * knitting needle * needlenose * needlenose pliers * on pins and needles * move the needle * packing needle * pine needle * pins and needles * needle in a haystack * needlepunch * needle-sharp * needlewiseSee also
* acerate * eye * pinVerb
(needl)- the eyes were once more beginning to show the old nystagmus; so I decided to needle' the cataracts, and on Jan. 31 I ' needled the right eye.
- Possibly the greatest effect is achieved in the hand by needling the thumb, the index finger and the region of the 1st and 2nd metacarpal.
- Billy needled his sister incessantly about her pimples.
- FRED: Well, I teased her to some extent, or I needled' her, not teased her. I ' needled her about—first I said that she didn't want to work, and then I think that there were a couple of comments.
- to needle crystals
