to kick against the pricks
- idiom
- Archaic
:
luchar contra lo inevitable
- Despite her efforts to resist, she realized that kicking against the pricks only made her situation worse.
Examples
-
He found it futile to kick against the pricks when trying to change the company's strict rules.
-
And the Lord said, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks."
Blog text (11) -
And the Lord said, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks."
Blog text (11) -
The workers learned that kicking against the pricks of management's decisions would not lead to any improvements.
Synonyms
311
2.2
Act against authority, rules or change
188
3.3
Resist an attack or criticism by responding
22
3.7
To resist a person or rule that treats people unfairly
4
9.8
To openly oppose people in power to cause them trouble
1
8.5
To try to challenge the government or people in power when success seems unlikely
Defend your ideas or what you want when others disagree
Antonyms
How Defiant
Surface Forms
Morphology
Although a learner might imagine the literal image of kicking sharp points, the idiomatic sense 'to resist futilely' depends on an archaic meaning of 'pricks' (goads) and a metaphorical extension that B1 learners are unlikely to know. The phrase is rare/archaic and its specific sense (rebelling against authority or working against one's own interest) cannot be reliably derived from the constituent words, so it is not transparent.
Etymology
Kick against the pricks may come from an old farm image: farmers used sharp sticks called pricks to make oxen move, and if an ox kicked against them it would only hurt itself. So, the phrase now means 'to fight or resist something in a way that is useless and may harm you'.