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.

This isn’t the first time she has been at a loss for words; 20 years earlier, at 16, “the language that had pricked and confined her like clothing made from a thousand needles abruptly disappeared.”

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 17, 2023

But in nine of the cats there was a subsequent uptick in their movement when their name was mentioned, suggesting they had pricked up their ears.

From The Guardian • Apr. 4, 2019

Evidently the Briton in the street had pricked up ears at "sponge cake," grinned approval at the project of ending John Bull's "henpecked husbandhood."

From Time Magazine Archive

Possibly he had pricked his finger on a crystal that had been contaminated with urine from some animal or the remains of a crushed insect.

From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston

But even if he had pricked his finger on a crystal, that didn’t tell where the virus lived in nature; it didn’t identify the virus’s natural host.

From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston