prickly heat


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

Origin of prickly heat

1
An Americanism dating back to 1730–40

Words Nearby prickly heat

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use prickly heat in a sentence

  • With a prickly heat suffusing my whole body and a melting sensation at the collar I struggled through the wretched lyric once.

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

    The Mother and Her Child | William S. Sadler
  • With solicitude he glanced down at the small, moist, pink, lumpy bundle of prickly heat and sore gums.

    The Escape of Mr. Trimm | Irvin S. Cobb
  • On Lucknow station platform he watched young De Castro, all covered with prickly-heat, get into a second-class compartment.

    Kim | Rudyard Kipling
  • He was now in that unpleasant state of prickly heat when testy old gentlemen could commit slaughter with ecstasy.

    Evan Harrington, Complete | George Meredith

British Dictionary definitions for prickly heat

prickly heat

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