Chaucer, Clerk's Tale, 1

983. When they heard this they were pricked in their heart. Acts ii. 37. steps, as a hare. Prick ye the fearful hare through cro -ways, sheepwalks. Fletcher, Beggars' Bush, iii. 4. Send forth your woodmen then into the walks, Or let them prick her footing hence. B. Jonson , Sad Shepherd, if. 2. 13. Naut ., to run a middle seam through the cloth of (a sail). - Pricking-up coat, in building , the first coating of plaster upon lath. The first or pricking - up coat is of coarse stuff put on with a trowel to form a key behind the laths. Workshop Receipts , 1st ser., p. 122. Prick the garter. Same as fast and loose ( a ) (which see, under fast1 ). To prick a cartridge, to pierce a hole leading into the chamber of the cartridge which contains the charge, in order to provide for the priming a clear pa age to the powder. - To prick out, in gardening , to plant out, as seedlings from a greenhouse to an open border. Shallow cuttings. wooden boxes. are very useful for seed-sowing, for pricking out seedlings, or for planting Encyc . Brit ., XII. 240. To prick the ship off, to mark the ship's position in latitude and longitude on a chart. - To prick up, in plastering , to plaster with the first of three coats.