pinprick

[ pin-prik ]

/ ˈpɪnˌprɪk /

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noun

any minute puncture made by a pin or the like.

a negligible irritation or annoyance.

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Origin of pinprick

First recorded in 1745–55; pin + prick

Words nearby pinprick

Pinoy, PIN pad, pin plate, pinpoint, pinpoint bombing, pinprick, pin rail, PINS, pins and needles, pinscher, pin seal

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use pinprick in a sentence

Spears that lodged in a mammoth’s hide probably felt like a series of stinging pinpricks that could easily have angered the creature and caused it to charge at or stomp on human pursuers.
Clovis hunters’ reputation as mammoth killers takes a hit|Bruce Bower|January 11, 2022|Science News
Though he would have been wearing gloves in both surgeries, even a small pinprick hole could have been enough to transmit the virus into the women.
Two New Moms Died From Catastrophic Herpes. Did the Same Doctor Give It to Them?|Barbie Latza Nadeau|November 23, 2021|The Daily Beast
Starting this month, however, the theater district will start flickering back on, the small pinpricks of light growing bigger and brighter by the week.
Well, hello, Broadway. It’s so nice to have you back where you belong.|Andrea Sachs|September 8, 2021|Washington Post
As a result, when the laser is shined on a surface, its light contains a constantly changing pattern of tiny pinpricks that brighten and dim randomly.
A new laser-based random number generator is the fastest of its kind|Maria Temming|February 25, 2021|Science News

The gap between rhetoric and action was on vivid display this weekend with pinprick U.S. strikes in northern Iraq.
Obama's Iraq-Syria Dilemma: No Force Now on the Ground Can Beat ISIS|Jamie Dettmer|August 26, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Besides, to shoot a mere amateur in Chouannerie would be as absurd as to fire on a balloon when a pinprick would disinflate it.
The Chouans|Honore de Balzac
Suddenly the darkness was pierced by a faint ray of light emanating from a mere pinprick of luminosity.
Billy Barcroft, R.N.A.S.|Percy F. Westerman
Used as he had become, the past two years, to pinpricks of this sort, his colour betrayed how much the present pinprick hurt him.
The Brentons|Anna Chapin Ray
The offence itself seemed a pinprick beside the rankle of the wound to her pride.
Rest Harrow|Maurice Hewlett
The cavalry horses and transport animals suffered from bursati, and even a pinprick expanded into a large open sore.
The River War|Winston S. Churchill

British Dictionary definitions for pinprick

pinprick

/ (ˈpɪnˌprɪk) /

noun

a slight puncture made by or as if by a pin

a small irritation

verb

(tr) to puncture with or as if with a pin

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