Smart vs Prick - What's the difference?

smart | prick | Related terms |

Smart is a related term of prick.

As a proper noun smart

is .

As a noun prick is

a small hole or perforation, caused by piercing.

As a verb prick is

to pierce or puncture slightly.

smart

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) smerten, from (etyl) .

Verb

To hurt or sting.

After being hit with a pitch, the batter exclaimed "Ouch, my arm smarts !"

* 1897 , (Bram Stoker), (Dracula) Chapter 21

He moved convulsively, and as he did so, said, "I'll be quiet, Doctor. Tell them to take off the strait waistcoat. I have had a terrible dream, and it has left me so weak that I cannot move. What's wrong with my face? It feels all swollen, and it smarts dreadfully."

To cause a smart or sting in.

* T. Adams

A goad that smarts the flesh.

To feel a pungent pain of mind; to feel sharp pain or grief; to suffer; to feel the sting of evil.

* Alexander Pope

No creature smarts so little as a fool.

* Bible, Proverbs xi. 15

He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it.

Etymology 2

From (etyl) smart, smarte, smerte, from (etyl) .

Adjective

(er)

Causing sharp pain; stinging.

* Shakespeare

How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience.

Sharp; keen; poignant.

a smart pain

Exhibiting social ability or cleverness.

* 1811 , Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility , chapter 19

I always preferred the church, and I still do. But that was not smart' enough for my family. They recommended the army. That was a great deal too ' smart for me.

Exhibiting intellectual knowledge, such as that found in books.

(often, in combination) Equipped with intelligent behaviour.

smart''' bomb'', '''''smart car

smart'''card'', '''''smart phone

Good-looking.

a smart outfit

Cleverly shrewd and humorous in a way that may be rude and disrespectful.

He became tired of his daughter's sarcasm and smart remarks''.

* Young

Who, for the poor renown of being smart / Would leave a sting within a brother's heart?

* Addison

a sentence or two, which I thought very smart

Sudden and intense.

* Clarendon

smart skirmishes, in which many fell

* 1860 July 9, Henry David Thoreau, journal entry, from Thoreau's bird-lore'', Francis H. Allen (editor), Houghton Mifflin (Boston, 1910), ''Thoreau on Birds: notes on New England birds from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau , Beacon Press, (Boston, 1993), page 239:

There is a smart shower at 5 P.M., and in the midst of it a hummingbird is busy about the flowers in the garden, unmindful of it, though you would think that each big drop that struck him would be a serious accident.

(US, Southern, dated) Intense in feeling; painful. Used usually with the adverb intensifier right .

He raised his voice, and it hurt her feelings right smart .

That cast on his leg chaffs him right smart .

(archaic) Efficient; vigorous; brilliant.

* Dryden

The stars shine smarter .

(archaic) Pretentious; showy; spruce.

a smart gown

(archaic) Brisk; fresh.

a smart breeze

Synonyms

* (exhibiting social ability) bright, capable, sophisticated, witty * (exhibiting intellectual knowledge) cultivated, educated, learned, see also * (good-looking) attractive, chic, stylish, handsome * silly

Antonyms

* (exhibiting social ability) backward, banal, boorish, dull, inept * (exhibiting intellectual knowledge) ignorant, uncultivated, simple * (good-looking) garish, , tacky

Derived terms

* smart aleck * smart as a whip * smart casual * smart off

Etymology 3

From (etyl) smerte, from . More above.

Noun

(en noun)

A sharp, quick, lively pain; a sting.

Mental pain or suffering; grief; affliction.

* Milton

To stand 'twixt us and our deserved smart .

* Spenser

Counsel mitigates the greatest smart .

Smart-money.

(slang, dated) A dandy; one who is smart in dress; one who is brisk, vivacious, or clever.

(Fielding)

Anagrams

* * ----

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)