View synonyms for prodding

prodding

[ prod-ing ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

the act of poking or jabbing with or as if with something pointed:
Finally, after five minutes and some prodding with a stick, the cow moved out of the road.
the act of trying to incite someone to action, as if by poking; nagging or urging:
The National Research Council finally succeeded in its assigned mission—albeit with some prodding from a public interest group and the courts.

poking, urging, or nagging:
It wasn’t until two days later, under the prodding questions of close relatives, that she revealed the true source of the ring.

First recorded in 1840–45; prod + -ing ¹ for the noun senses; prod + -ing ² for the adjective sense

But, as the people of Irving are now discovering, all of this poking and prodding is not without potential consequences.

Yeonmi remembers one of the officials prodding her stomach with a gun.

“I have chosen a ‘middle-ground’ method of moderation, a sort of behind-the-scenes prodding,” he wrote in a posting.

Casablancas speaks in a drowsy mumble and occasionally needs prodding, but once you do, becomes surprisingly engaged.

Marianne Stewart of Cedar Falls needed repeated prodding to recall that she had caucused for Santorum.

In the brightening dawn Richard saw the pursuer prodding with a cimeter-point to add to the spur sting.

Something had come right down into his hole and was prodding him.

He saw the fields and heard the sharp cries of the coaches prodding on the players.

Noticing Tharn was awake, the man lowered the spear point with which he had been prodding the captive.

He held it away from Mayo's eager reach and investigated still more with prodding fingers.

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