Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One, such as a pricking tool, that pierces or pricks.
  • noun A prickle or thorn.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun That which pricks; a sharp-pointed instrument; a prickle.
  • noun A small tool, resembling in form and use a fid or marlinespike, with a wooden handle, used by sail-makers
  • noun A piercing implement used in a machine for manufacturing card-foundations.
  • noun A priming-needle of pointed copper wire, used in blasting. It is inserted in the charge of powder centrally with reference to the drilled hole, and the tamping is packed around it. On its withdrawal a hole is left, into which fine powder is poured, and a fuse is then connected with the top of the hole.
  • noun In gunnery, a sharp wire introduced through the touch-hole of a gun to pierce the cartridge, thus opening a communication between the powder in the cartridge and the priming-powder when the gun is primed.
  • noun An implement for extracting primers from spent central-fire cartridges for small-arms, when the cases are to be reloaded.
  • noun A long iron rod with a sharp point, a kind of pointed crowbar, used in some of the English coal-mines for bringing down the coal from overhead, and for some other purposes.
  • noun One who pricks.
  • noun One who tested whether women were witches by sticking pins into them; a witch-finder.
  • noun In ichthyology, the basking-shark.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who, or that which, pricks; a pointed instrument; a sharp point; a prickle.
  • noun One who spurs forward; a light horseman.
  • noun A priming wire; a priming needle, -- used in blasting and gunnery.
  • noun (Naut.) A small marline spike having generally a wooden handle, -- used in sailmaking.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun One who pricks.
  • noun A tool for pricking.
  • noun A prickle or thorn.
  • noun One who spurs forward; a light horseman.
  • noun A priming wire; a priming needle, used in blasting and gunnery.
  • noun nautical A small marlinespike used in sailmaking.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a small sharp-pointed tip resembling a spike on a stem or leaf
  • noun an awl for making small holes for brads or small screws

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

prick +‎ -er

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Examples

Comments

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  • Sometimes the Century Dictionary leaves me with more questions than answers:

    "7. A long iron rod with a sharp point, a kind of pointed crowbar, used in some of the English coal-mines for bringing down the coal from overhead, and for some other purposes.

    8. One who pricks. Specifically — A light horseman.

    9. One who tested whether women were witches by sticking pins into them; a witch-finder."

    February 5, 2011

  • Sounds very much like a tool used in the creation of Frog Applause.

    February 6, 2011

  • I didn't know that about light horsemen. Wow....

    February 6, 2011