prickles 1 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of prickle
as in pokes
to cause or experience an unpleasant feeling that is like the feeling of having many small, sharp points against your skin The burrs were prickling my arm. The wool sweater prickled my skin.

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prickles

2 of 2

noun

plural of prickle
as in spikes

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of prickles
Verb
An awareness of absent ancestors prickles through her writing, but at the same time, her fictional worlds feel solid and present. — Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 17 Feb. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for prickles
  1. pokes
  2. spikes
  3. pierces
  4. barbs
  5. stings
  6. snags
  7. holes
  8. stickers
Verb
  • Bryan gets attacked by a dog, who pokes its head through a barn wall…and then the dog’s face splits apart like a flower, with tentacles shooting out.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 16 Sep. 2026
  • Natural light pokes through the windows, adding a trademark freshness to an indoor coliseum.
    — Alec Lewis, New York Times, 14 Sep. 2026
Definition of pokes
Noun
  • The team identified a continuous midline feature that began as a fleshy crest along the neck and trunk and transitioned over the hips into a single row of spikes running down the tail — each spike positioned over a single vertebra and fitted to each other.
    — Abhishek Bhardwaj, Interesting Engineering, 24 Oct. 2025
Definition of spikes
Verb
  • Christmas tree pins have a tiered configuration that compresses rather than pierces the ground (a win for modern synthetic or Mondo tracks).
    — Stacia Datskovska, Footwear News, 10 Sep. 2026
  • An ice sculpture of a heart includes a tube through the ice arrow that pierces the heart.
    — Peter Larsen, Oc Register, 10 July 2026
Definition of pierces
Noun
  • Her barbs are sharp enough to bring even Regina George to tears.
    — Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 29 Sep. 2026
  • But while politicians trade barbs, residents in Rio de Janeiro have been designing their own responses, with ex-traffickers launching podcasts and grieving mothers stepping up to stop youth recruitment.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 27 Sep. 2026
Definition of barbs
Verb
  • General Mills spun off Darden Restaurants in 1995, and then Darden sold Red Lobster in 2014, in a deal with the private equity firm Golden Gate Capital that still stings many veterans to this day.
    — Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 1 Oct. 2026
  • The pain of losing Hollywood actor Heath Ledger nearly 20 years ago still stings for his on-screen Dark Knight family.
    — Joey Nolfi, Entertainment Weekly, 11 Sep. 2026
Definition of stings
Noun
  • Gurman claims the foldable is still on track for this fall, despite chatter about manufacturing snags.
    — Kimberly Gedeon, PC Magazine, 8 Sep. 2026
  • It was once destined for 2028 but has run into snags related to pricing, manufacturing and practicality.
    — Bloomberg, Mercury News, 4 Sep. 2026
Definition of snags
Verb
  • What Skunk Burrows Look Like For a larger animal, holes that skunks dig while foraging are relatively small.
    — Michelle Mastro, Martha Stewart, 24 Sep. 2026
  • Fill ruts, depressions, and holes with topsoil and either turf or plants.
    — Luke Miller, Better Homes & Gardens, 16 Sep. 2026
Definition of holes
Noun
  • But the prices for the vast majority of stickers are pretty low, which means that no vulture is out there buying up all the sticker packs and trying to resell them at inflated prices to impressionable children hoping to win the lottery.
    — Jay Caspian Kang, New Yorker, 30 June 2026
Definition of stickers

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Cite this Entry

“Prickles.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/prickles. Accessed 3 Oct. 2026.

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