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prickly heat

American  

noun

Pathology.

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

prickly heat British  

noun

  1. 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.

Prickly heat began to affect the vertebrae of the spectators.

From Time Magazine Archive

Prickly heat, and many other disorders, are caused by it on the European constitution.

From The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism. Volume 1 by Whymper, Frederick

Prickly heat has seized hold upon me with a promptness that is anything but agreeable; the thermometer in my room at Clarke's Hotel registers 108 deg. at midnight.

From Around the World on a Bicycle - Volume II From Teheran To Yokohama by Stevens, Thomas

Prickly heat produces more or less discomfort but usually little or no itching.

From The Mother and Her Child by Sadler, William S.

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

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.