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Glite Dictionary
pricking

pricking

2 6.0
Making a small hole with a sharp point
  • noun
  • /ˈprɪkɪŋ/
translation icon : punción
  • Billy informs the director that he's got a pricking pain all over his nerve fibers.
  • dorsal pricking

The thought of even doing it once like I, I'm, I can't let my sister test my finger with the little pricks and stuff like that.

Examples

  • After the pricking of the balloon, the party became much quieter.

  • He felt a sharp pricking sensation in his finger after he touched the thorn.

  • The pricking of the rain on her bare arm was startling, almost painful.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • It is a severe burning kind of pain with a feeling of tingling, pins and needles pricking, electric shock, and it may be precipitated by light touch or cloth.

    Academic text (2007)

  • The nurse used a small needle for the pricking needed to draw blood.

Synonyms

prick
vspricking
7 5.0

A small sharp hole made by a pointed object

is the same meaning but uses the -ing form rather than the base noun
transverberation
vspricking
  • Archaic
9.9

An action of putting a sharp object through something

is about a small puncture rather than piercing all the way through

How Deep

stabbing
  • NSFW
69 4.1
piercing
2 5.5
pricking
2 6.0
poking
3 2.7

Surface Forms

pricking singular
prickings plural

Morphology

pricking = prick (transparent) = prick + ing

A straightforward gerund/participle formation from the verb 'prick' yielding the noun 'pricking' meaning 'the act of puncturing'.

Etymology

Pricking comes from the old verb prick, which means 'to pierce' or 'to poke' with a small sharp point. You can see the same root in prickle, which means something that makes tiny sharp pains, so pricking is the act of making a small sharp puncture or the little sharp feeling you sometimes feel.