pricket

English

Etymology

From Middle English precat, preket, priket, pryket; equivalent to prick +‎ -et. Earlier currency of the Middle English word is apparently implied by surnames and borrowings into Latin and Anglo-Norman.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɪkɪt/

Noun

pricket (plural prickets)

1. (obsolete) A candle. [14th–17th c.]
2. A spike for holding a single candle. [from 15th c.]
   • 2020, Hilary Mantel, The Mirror and the Light, Fourth Estate, page 174:

     Lighting their way with tallow candles on pewter prickets.

3. A male deer in its second year, whose antlers have not yet branched. [from 15th c.]
   • 1816, John Keats, For there's Bishop's Teign:

     he can stay / For the new-mown hay, / And startle the dappled prickets?

Anagrams

• Petrick