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prickly heat

American

noun

Pathology.

a cutaneous eruption accompanied by a prickling and itching sensation, due to an inflammation of the sweat glands.

prickly heat British

noun

a nontechnical name for miliaria

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of prickly heat

An Americanism dating back to 1730–40

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.

See Examples For:

prickly heat

To visually take us there, it uses the headline "prickly heat", calling to mind the cacti of Arizona.

From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026

In the Library of America’s “Didion: The 1960s & ’70s,” readers can feel the prickly heat, smell the approaching catastrophe.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 8, 2019

“I’m seeing a lot of heat cases, prickly heat, a lot of foot cases - athlete’s foot and borderline trench foot - and a lot of exhaustion,” he said.

From Washington Times ● Sep. 23, 2018

The journey consists of a series of adventures in the broiling temperatures, culminating in a stifling encounter that could be the cinematic equivalent of prickly heat.

From Salon ● May 29, 2017

Some feeling was slowly returning to them, mostly a stinging, prickly heat that was like a painful mockery of the soothing warmth I had felt a minute ago when I was drifting off to sleep.

From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023