prong

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Upon the neck of this enraged brute sat a young man in perfect calmness belaboring the animal's head with the iron prong which is used universally in India for guiding elephants.

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Definitions (11)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A thin, pointed, projecting part: a pitchfork with four prongs.
  2. noun A branch; a fork: the two prongs of a river.
  3. transitive verb To pierce with or as if with a thin, pointed, projecting part.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (6)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (50)

  • Then there is a third prong, a part of which is outside our particular areas of expertise, and that is response. —  WHSV - HomePage - Headlines
  • At the front of the console is a standard three-prong, —  Mississauga News
  • The last prong is a critical piece of Russian-Turkish competition. —  WORLDMag.com
  • On he came, bounding over the turf like the prong-horned antelope, turning neither to the right hand nor to the left, but taking everything that intercepted him in a flying leap, and bearing down on the camp as an arrow flies from the bow Although a single horseman is not usually an object of terror to a band of Indians, these braves soon began to evince by their looks that they did not feel easy in regard to this one. —  The Wild Man of the West A Tale of the Rocky Mountains
  • It was now apparent that if Big Pete did not hunt the prong-horns someone or something else did hunt them As a bunch broke away from the scattered groups and came in my direction, making great leaps over the prairie, I detected the cause of their panic in the form of a huge eagle which was keeping pace with and flying over the fleeing prong-horns The bird was not more than a dozen feet above the animals’ backs and in vain did the poor creatures try to distance their pursuer. —  The Black Wolf Pack
 

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Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English pronge, pointed instrument, pain, from Medieval Latin pronga, of Germanic origin.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. Middle English, also pronge, prange, a pang: see pang, which is an altered form of the same word.
  2. Early modern English also prongue; cf. prog, thrust, proke, thrust.
  3. from prong, n.
 

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/prɔŋ/
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