1977 December 10, Arnold W. Klassen, “Looking For Alternatives: A New Political Analysis”, inGay Community News, volume 5, number23, page13:
Patriarchal attitudes have made a society where men rule and women obey, where "you'd-better-know-your-place-boy," where gay men actually play husband-and-wife (my lover and I did it for four years, until it became intolerable), where kingprick lays down the law.
(slang,derogatory) Someone (especially a male) who is unpleasant, rude or annoying.[from 16th c.]
(now historical) A small roll of yarn or tobacco.[from 17th c.]
I caused the edges of two knives to be ground truly strait; andpricking their points into a board, so that their edges might look towards one another, and, meeting near their points, contain a rectilinear angle
(intransitive,dated) To be punctured; to suffer or feel a sharp pain, as by puncture.
By thepricking of my thumbs, / Something wicked this way comes.
(ambitransitive) To make or become 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 byup.
The dog's earspricked up at the sound of a whistle.
1697,Virgil, “The Second Book of theGeorgics”, inJohn Dryden, transl.,The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis.[…], London:[…]Jacob Tonson,[…],→OCLC:
The courser [...]pricks up his ears.
(horticulture)Usually in the formprick out: toplant (seeds or seedlings) in holes made in soil at regularintervals.
Seed should be sown thinly and evenly to enable seedlings to bepricked out without disturbing those that have just emerged. If there is space, seedlings should bepricked out individually, either into small pots or module trays.
2005 October 22, Valerie Bourne, “Self-seeding”, inThe Daily Telegraph (Gardening)[2], archived fromthe original on24 November 2013:
All three germinate well in pots and can bepricked out and potted on with no problems. [...] Grass seeds can be collected as the heads begin to break up. Sow them in late spring,prick out small bundles of seedlings into 7.5cm (3in) pots and transplant them in late May.
2015 September 21, Helen Yemm, “How to manage hollyhocks [print version: Hollyhock and elder care, evil weevils, 12 September 2015, page 7]”, inThe Daily Telegraph (Gardening)[3], archived fromthe original on25 September 2015:
Geoff might prefer to "take control": to collect seed and sow it next spring,pricking out a few of the best seedlings, growing them on in pots next summer before planting them out in the autumn.
At last, as through an open plaine they yode, They spide a knight that towards thempricked fayre [...].
1667,John Milton, “Book II”, inParadise Lost.[…], London:[…] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker[…];[a]nd by Robert Boulter[…];[a]nd Matthias Walker,[…],→OCLC; republished asParadise Lost in Ten Books:[…], London: Basil Montagu Pickering[…],1873,→OCLC, lines527-538:
Part, on the plain or in the air sublime, / Upon the wing or in swift race contend, / As at the Olympian games or Pythian fields; / Part curb their fiery steed, or shun the goal / With rapid wheel, or fronted brigads form : / As when, to warn proud cities, war appears / Waged in the trouble sky, and armies rush / To battle in the clouds; before each van /Prick forth the aery knights, and couch their spears / Till thickest legions close; with feats of arms / From either end of heaven the welkin burns.
1874–1881, Robert Louis Stevenson,Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers, London:C[harles] Kegan Paul & Co.,[…], published1881,→OCLC:
Indeed, it is a memorable subject for consideration, with what unconcern and gaiety mankindpricks on along the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
To affect with sharp pain; to sting, as with remorse.
[…] I wasprick'd with some reproof, / As one that let foul wrong stagnate and be, / By having look'd too much thro' alien eyes, / And wrought too long with delegated hands, / Not used mine own:[…]
Three days remained till Beltane's Eve, and throughout this time it was noted that Heriotside behaved like one possessed. It may be that his consciencepricked him, or that he had a glimpse of his sin and its coming punishment.
