prick-eared
Americanadjective
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having the ears upright and pointed.
a prick-eared dog.
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British.
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Informal. (of a man) having the hair cut short.
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Archaic. following or sympathetic to the Puritans or Roundheads.
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Archaic. priggish.
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Etymology
Origin of prick-eared
late Middle English word dating back to 1375–1425
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A few years earlier, it was a group of Bedford, N.H., seventh-graders who brought a prick-eared, frizzy-coated breed known as the Chinook to the attention of that state’s legislature.
From Slate ● Apr. 17, 2012
The pointed, cutting, mocking sentences laugh and dance through his pages like light-toed, prick-eared elves.
From Landmarks in French Literature by Giles Lytton Strachey
This ungraceful fashion was universal at the time, and partly led to the nicknames of roundheads, prick-eared curs, and so forth, which the insolence of the cavaliers liberally bestowed on their political enemies.
From A Legend of Montrose by Sir Walter Scott
They knew no more, and Walter pronouncing it to be all a cock-and-bull story of some rascally prick-eared pedlar, declared he would go down to the village and enquire into the rights of it.
From The Pigeon Pie by Charlotte Mary Yonge
He smiled at the keen look of alert, prick-eared attention which the other was still giving to that room!
From The Brimming Cup by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
