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Prick vs Sever - What's the difference?

prick | sever | Related terms |

Prick is a related term of sever.


As a noun prick

is a small hole or perforation, caused by piercing.

As a verb prick

is to pierce or puncture slightly.

As a proper noun sever is

.

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)

    sever

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To cut free.
    • After he graduated, he severed all links to his family.
    to sever the head from the body
  • * Bible, Matthew xiii. 49
    • The angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just.
  • To suffer disjunction; to be parted or separated.
    • (Shakespeare)
  • To make a separation or distinction; to distinguish.
    • The Lord shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt. — Ex. ix. 4.
    They claimed the right of severing in their challenge. — Macaulay.
  • (legal) To disunite; to disconnect; to terminate.
    • to sever an estate in joint tenancy
    (Blackstone)

    Synonyms

    * becut * cut off

    Derived terms

    * severable * severally

    Related terms

    * separate

    External links

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