prickern.

a1350 in R. H. Robbins Hist. Poems 14th & 15th Cent. (1959) 7 (MED) Al is piked of þe pore, þe prikyares prude.

c1400 (a1376) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Trin. Cambr. R.3.14) (1960) A. x. 8 A proud prikere [v.r. preker; c1400 B text pryker; c1400 C text prikyere] of Fraunce, princeps huius mundi.

c1440 (?a1400) Morte Arthure 355 Send prekers to þe price toun, and plaunte there my segge.

a1470 T. Malory Morte Darthur (Winch. Coll.) 232 I had levir have be toryn with four wylde horse than..ony page other prycker sholde wynne of me the pryce in this felde gotyn.

1519 W. Horman Vulgaria xxx. f. 258 The pryckers be gone to spye, what oure ennemyes go aboute.

a1572 J. Knox Hist. Reformation Scotl. in Wks. (1846) I. 210 The Erle of Warwik and the Lord Gray..perceaving the host to be molested with the Scotishe preakaris.

a1600 King & Barker 30 in W. C. Hazlitt Remains Early Pop. Poetry Eng. (1864) I. 5 A preker abowt..yn maney a contre.

a1639 J. Spottiswood Hist. Church Scotl. (1655) vi. 401 Iohnston..after the Border fashion, sent forth some prickers to ride, and make provocation.

1785 F. Grose in Archaeologia (1787) 8 113 This sort of spur [having only one very long and very thick point] was worn by a body of light horsemen in the reign of Henry VIII. thence called prickers.

1808 W. Scott Marmion v. xvii. 267 Northumbrian prickers wild and rude.

1894 W. Tweedie Arabian Horse iii. i. 165 What the cleverest collie is to the Cheviot shepherd gives but a faint idea of what his mare is to the desert pricker.

1924 R. B. Cunninghame Graham Vanished Arcadia (new ed.) x. 268 The varied knowledge of a country which of old made Border horsemen and Northumbrian prickers formidable upon the Scottish marches.

1995 K. Durham Border Reivers 38/1 Wharton, watching from the vantage point of Arthuret Heights with his Cumbrian prickers, watched the main strength of the Scottish army advance towards the River Esk.

1575 G. Gascoigne Noble Arte Venerie xxxviii. 103 If the Hart be accompanyed with any other Deare, then the pricker on horsebacke must ryde full in the face of him, to trie if he can part them or not.

1586 T. Randolph in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. (1827) 2nd Ser. III. 123 To lend him..a cowple of her Majesties Yeomen prickers and a cowple of the Groomes of the Leese.

1616 J. Bullokar Eng. Expositor Pricker, a Huntsman on horse~backe.

1733 tr. B. Morando Rosalinda ii. 61 The Forests rang with the Shouts of the Prickers, and the Sound of their Horns.

1760 R. Heber Horse Matches ix. 23 50 l. was run for, free only for the Huntsmen, Yeomen Prickers, and Keepers of Windsor Forest.

1837 T. Carlyle French Revol. I. i. ii. 17 Who is it that the King..now guides? His own huntsmen and prickers.

1891 Daily News 12 June 3/1 At Ascot..the Royal procession..was headed by Lord Coventry, the Master of the Buckhounds, and the whips and yeomen prickers in their picturesque uniform of green and scarlet.

1931 J. Buchan Blanket of Dark vi. 128 The prickers' horns sounded to recall the hounds.

2002 Spectator (Nexis) 22 June 45 Until..the beginning of the 20th century, the racecourse was administered by the Master of the Buckhounds and his stalwart Yeoman Prickers, whose forest-green livery is still echoed today in the picturesque togs of the gatemen.

a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) (1969) Jer. xlvi. 20 Þe prickere [L. stimulator] fro þe norþ shal come to þee.

1552 R. Huloet Abcedarium Anglico Latinum Prycker or stynger, stigator.

1565 T. Cooper Thesaurus Stimulator..a pricker or stirrer forwarde.

1836 W. Hamilton in Edinb. Rev. Oct. 108 For a few holders of the plough, there are many prickers of the oxen.

1923 J. C. Bailey Continuity of Lett. 73 He shows himself..a pricker of all bubbles of unreality even about himself.

1977 New Yorker 10 Oct. 192/3 As a pricker of such balloons, he was without parallel.

1994 Observer (Nexis) 4 Sept. 4 He never flattered and he never kow-towed, and he was a keeper and pricker of consciences for two generations.

1661 in R. Pitcairn Criminal Trials Scotl. III. 602 The Magistrat and Minister caused Johne Kinkaid, the comon pricker, to prik hir, and found tuo marks upon hir, which he called the Devill his markis.

1678 G. Mackenzie Laws & Customes Scotl. i. 91 The Devils mark..is given..by a nip in any part of the body, and it is blew... This mark is discovered amongst us by a Pricker..they alleadge that if the place bleed not, or if the person be not sensible, he or she is infallibly a Witch.

1709 W. Steuart Coll. & Observ. Church Scotl. iii. iv. 212 The Devils Mark is not per se relevant, unless it be Confess'd by them... The prickers say, If the place Bleed not, [etc.].

1865 ‘G. Eliot’ in Fortn. Rev. May 48 It was the regular profession of men called ‘prickers’ to thrust long pins into the body of a suspected witch in order to detect the insensible spot which was the infallible sign of her guilt.

1927 J. Buchan Witch Wood xvi. 271 The pricker fand the Deil's mark on her back, and stappit a preen intil it up to the head and nae bluid came.

1997 Med. Post (Nexis) 24 June 9 Prickers were on commission and so became an ingenious lot... False pricking instruments..appeared with retractable blades, ensuring a bloodless procedure and guaranteeing charges of witchcraft would be laid.

a1500 in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. (1884) I. 682/37 Hoc punctorium, a prykker.

1546 T. Langley tr. P. Vergile De Invent. iii. x. 77 The Squire the Lyne the Shaue the Pricker or Punche were diuysed by Theodor a Samian.

1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory iii. iii. 151/1 Needles of all sorts and sizes set in sticks, after the manner of Prickers: called Etching Tooles.

1748 J. Dinsdale tr. Art Fortific. i. vi. 20 The Needle, or Pricker, to be of several Uses, ought to be made of two Pieces, which are joined by a Screw.

1806 C. Hutton Course Math. (ed. 5) I. 80 With the point of a fine pin or pricker, prick through all the corners of the plan to be copied.

1875 T. Seaton Man. Fret Cutting 145 One of the best instruments to use as a pricker is a bit of a knitting needle put into a stout handle, and ground to a fine point.

1884 Nat. Museum Bull. No. 27. 778 Splicer or pricker... Used for splicing trawl-lines.

1961 K. Reisz Technique Film Editing (ed. 9) xi. 173 A long-handled ‘pricker’ is pushed in from out of picture and finishes unplugging the tap-hole.

1999 Needlecraft Mar. 79/1 (advt.) Hand-turned bobbins, prickers & pin lifters.

1611 J. Florio Queen Anna's New World of Words at Agúcchia Amongst gunners a pricker or [priming] iron.

1754 H. Sharpe Let. 10 Dec. in W. H. Browne Arch. Maryland (1888) VI. 141 I wish you could..order up thither some..wire for Screws & prickers Flints & match for the Carriage Guns.

1799 H. Grace Code Mil. Standing Regulations Bengal Establishm. I. xxiv. 301/2 If any sepoy wilfully or carelessly looses or spoils any of his arms or accoutrements, stoppages shall be made out of his pay..at the following rates: For a musket, 20 rupees..A worm, 2 annas, A pricker, 1 ditto.

1842 S. Lover Handy Andy iii Dick poking the touch-hole of the pistol with a pricker.

1678 J. Moxon Mech. Exercises I. vi. Explan. Terms 111 Pricker, is vulgarly called an Awl.

1788 W. Marshall Provincialisms E. Yorks. in Rural Econ. Yorks. II. 346 Pricker, a brad-awl.

1794 D. Steel Elements & Pract. Rigging & Seamanship I. 88 Pricker, a small instrument, like a marline~spike..,to make the holes with.

1858 P. L. Simmonds Dict. Trade Products 357/1 Stabber, a marling-spike; a sailmaker's pricker.

1984 J. Seymour Forgotten Arts (1985) 115/1 He measured each of the four sides of the sail in turn, pulling the cloth tight as he did so by driving a pricker, a steel pin set in a handle, through each corner, spread-eagling the sail on the floor.

2000 Chicago Tribune (Nexis) 1 July (New Homes section) 1 The carpenter's tools include..levels, whimble bits to bore holes for pegs and mallets to drive them, saws, planes, prickers (awls) [etc.].

1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory (1905) iii. xxii. 279/2 Sugar Boylers Instruments... A Lofe Pricker or a small Pricker. It much resembles the Shoomakers or Sadlers Aule..being a long slender Iron sharp pointed, set in a wooden round head or haft hooped at the bottom.

1790 Remarks Manuf. Maple Sugar (1791) 8 A few hours after the moulds are unstopped, the prickers should be run up the bottom of them three or four inches, to make way for the..molasses to pass off.

1820 W. Scoresby Acct. Arctic Regions II. 309 When a cask is nearly filled, the packing is completed by the use of a ‘pricker’..; one piece after another being thrust in by this instrument, until it can contain no more.

1836 Uncle Philip's Conversat. Whale Fishery 42 The pricker..is used in packing the blubber in casks.

1851 W. H. G. Kingston Peter the Whaler xxv. 254 Finally, when no more [blubber] can fall in, piece after piece is jambed in by a pricker.

1747 W. Hooson Miners Dict. sig. P4^v It is best..to put a little Clay on the top of the hole, upon the Raming fast about the Pricker.

1781 C. Clarke True Theory & Pract. Husbandry (new ed.) ii. 297 It is..necessary to let the point of the pricker or spindle deep into the powder.

1824 J. Mander Derbyshire Miners' Gloss. 54 The Pricker is then withdrawn, and a straw filled with gun-powder, is placed in the hole in its stead, which communicates with the powder in the Chamber.

1894 R. O. Heslop Northumberland Words 551 Pricker, a thin pointed rod made of yellow metal, and used for placing and adjusting a blasting cartridge, which it perforates and remains embedded in till the stemming has been tamped round it. When withdrawn, it leaves a touch hole through which the cartridge is fired.

1975 W. T. Shaw Mining Lake Counties (ed. 3) 23 The pricker was then pushed home through this stemming and into the powder.

1852 tr. J. J. Seidel Organ & its Constr. 64 These prickers are small pieces of wood a few inches long and one third of an inch thick.

1858 P. L. Simmonds Dict. Trade Products 301/2 Pricker,..a toothed instrument used by workmen for stabbing or marking leather, paper, &c.

a1877 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. II. 1787/2 Pricker, (Saddlery),...b. A tool used to mark stitch-holes so as to render them uniform in distance.

1993 Woodworker June 84/1 Various templates were used for ‘marking out’, and a series of wooden handled ‘prickers’ were used for indenting the spacing and positioning of the holes through which the gut was threaded.

1869 G. Lawson Dis. Eye 128 If an iridectomy has to be performed, instead of tearing through the lens capsule with the ordinary pricker, a pair of fine iris forceps is introduced through the corneal wound.

1951 Notes & Queries Anthropol. (ed. 6) i. 20 The pricker, either a triangular surgical needle or a ‘blood-gun’, is best kept in a tube of spirit and rubbed with spirit on cotton-wool before and after use.

1871 Austral. Town & Country Jrnl. (Sydney) 13 May 601/3 The followers of The Pearl accounted satisfactorily for his Saturday performance, by his having been ridden in ‘prickers’, which cut him so much about the mouth as to completely cow him.

1898 Western Champion (Barcaldine) 15 Feb. 12/1 The charge arose out of the use of a ‘pricker’, which was affixed to Passion Fruit's bridle to prevent his habit of ‘hanging out’.

1945 S. J. Baker Austral. Lang. vi. 121 A man in a temper is said..to have the dingbats, the pricker or the stirks.

1955 D. Niland Shiralee 102 You've got the pricker properly, eh? You'll knock him into next week, will ya?

1984 P. Wilson S. Pacific St. 69 Now don't get the pricker, Len.

2004 Cornishman (Nexis) 22 July 37 On a cab horse..he found what was known as a ‘pricker’ fastened to the bit. This was a piece of leather studded with nails that pierced the animal's cheek.

1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. III. 1787/2 Pricker,..4. A long slender iron rod used for probing or sounding the depth of a bog or quicksand.

a1890 Ann. Philadelphia & Pennsylvania 2 20 He had iron prickers to the hands and feet to aid in climbing lofty trees.

1701 J. Brand Brief Descr. Orkney, Zetland i. 4 When before Peterhead we saw the fins of a great Fish, about an yard above the Water, which they call a Pricker.

1890 P. H. Emerson Wild Life xxiii. 99 All we got out of a mass of weed and mud..[were] two prickers, and an old mussel.